By Brooke Bagley Last updated: October 7, 2023

How to Do Basic Math in Chinese

Numbers are among the first Chinese words that you’ll learn.

But what if you can take your skills a notch higher and do basic math in Chinese?

After all, you never know when you might need those math you learned in school. Addition, percentages and decimals are all part of daily life—just ask anyone who shops regularly. 

This guide will take you through essential math terms in Chinese, followed by more advanced vocabulary (with plenty of examples along the way). There’s a quiz too at the end so you can practice right away!

Contents

• Starter Math Vocabulary
• Addition
• Subtraction
• Multiplication
• Division
• Fractions
• Decimals
• Percentages
• Advanced Math Vocabulary
• Practice Quiz
• And One More Thing...

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Starter Math Vocabulary

As a warm-up, here are some simple Chinese math words: 

Here’s how they’d work in sentences:

3 和 11 是奇数, 4 和 12 是偶数。
sān hé shí yī shì jī shù, sì hé shí èr shì ǒu shù.
3 and 11 are odd numbers, 4 and 12 are even numbers.

10 小于 24 但是大于 8。
shí xiǎo yú èr shí sì dàn shì dà yú bā.
10 is less than 24 but greater than 8.

Addition

Let’s get into the actual math! First off, addition: 

Now, try your hand at a few basic addition statements in Chinese:

1 加 1 等于 2。
yī jiā yī děng yú èr.
1 plus 1 equals 2.

10 加 6 等于 16。
shí jiā liù děng yú shí liù.
10 plus 6 equals 16.

5 加 3 的和是 8。
wǔ jiā sān de hé shì bā。
The sum of 5 and 3 is 8. 

Just like in English, you can see that it’s pretty straightforward!

Subtraction

Here are some must-know words for subtraction: 

Subtraction has a similar format as addition, with 等于 followed by the resulting number at the end:

8 减 5 等于 3。
bā jiǎn wǔ děng yú sān.
8 minus 5 equals 3.

55 减 32 等于 23。
wǔ shí wǔ jiǎn sān shí èr děng yú èr shí sān.
55 minus 32 equals 23.

如 7 减 4 等于 3，则 7 为被减数，4为减数。
rú qī jiǎn sì děng yú sān, zé qī wéi bèi jiǎn shù, sì wéi jiǎn shù.
In 7 minus 4 equals 3, 7 is the minuend, and 4 is the subtrahend.

Multiplication

Getting the hang of it already? Here’s some vocabulary for multiplication: 

Take a look at these multiplication math problems:

5 乘以 11 等于 55 。
Wǔ chéng yǐ shí yī děng yú wǔ shí wǔ.
5 times 11 equals 55.

20 乘以 10 等于 200。
èr shí chéng yǐ shí děng yú liǎng bǎi.
20 times 10 equals 200.

6 乘以 8，乘积是 48。
liù chéng yǐ bā, chéng jī shì sì shí bā.
Multiply 6 by 8, the product is 48. 

You can shorten 乘以 to 乘  (chéng):

3 乘 4 等于 12 。
sān chéng sì děng yú shí èr.
3 times 4 equals 12.

Division

Finally, these are the most common Chinese words for division: 

Here’s how you can use these division vocabulary: 

30 除以 10 等于 3。
sān shí chú yǐ shí děng yú sān.
30 divided by 10 equals 3.

77 除以 7 等于 11。
qī shí qī chú yǐ qī děng yú shí yī.
77 divided by 7 equals 11.

25 除以 6，商数是 4，余数是 1。
èr shí wǔ chú yǐ liù, shāng shù shì sì, yú shù shì yī.
Divide 25 by 6, the quotient is 4 and the remainder is 1.

Fractions

Learning how to talk about fractions (and percentages) in Chinese might not seem like it should be a priority yet. But actually, that’s far from the truth.

Every time a cashier rings up your purchase and tells you how much you owe—every time you listen to the GPS spout directions as you drive, telling you how many miles/kilometers until your next turn—you hear one of these tiny numbers.

Let’s look into fractions:

You’ll notice that fractions follow a specific format:

[total amount] + 分之 + [smaller amount] 

While these fractions are correct, though, you wouldn’t use them when talking about quantities as we do in English. For example, when trying to say “two and a half hours,” you wouldn’t say 两个二分之一 (liǎng ge èr fēn zhī yī xiǎo shí).

Here are the same numbers, but how you’d use them in conversations and when talking about quantities:

Even time can be expressed with these. For example, 10:15 would be 十点一刻 (shí diǎn yī kè).

Decimals

Decimals are among the easiest to learn in this section, as they follow the same pattern they do in English:

[number] + 点 (diǎn) + [number]

For example:

一点五 (yī diǎn wǔ) = 1.5

五点六 (wǔ diǎn liù) = 5.6

二点三 (èr diǎn sān) = 2.3

For decimals with multiple numbers behind the point, you’d treat it similar to how we pronounce each digit in a year. For example:

零点二五 (líng diǎn èr wǔ) = 0.25

一点三四 (yī diǎn sān sì) = 1.34

Percentages

The word for percentage in Chinese is 百分之 (bǎi fēn zhī), which literally means 100 separate. Unlike in English, the number comes after the word “percentage” (百分之) rather than before:

Advanced Math Vocabulary

There are tons of Chinese math vocabulary out there, so here’s a sampler of Chinese math terms that go beyond the basics (and which you’re more likely to encounter in classes rather than everyday life):

Practice Quiz

To wrap everything up, let’s review what you’ve just learned with a quiz!

Try translating the following into Chinese:

1. ¥16.73

2. 5 1/2 apples

3. ¥8.40

4. 5 times 3 equals 15

5. ¥7.00

6. 1 plus 1 equals 2

7. 2 minus 1 equals 1

8. 25%

9. 20 divided by 4 equals 5

10. 1.75

Ready for the reveal? The answers are:

1. 十六块七毛三分 (shí liù kuài qī máo sān fēn) — ¥16.73

2. 五个半苹果 (wǔ gè bàn píng guǒ) — 5 1/2 apples

3. 八块四毛 (bā kuài sì máo) — ¥8.40

4. 5 乘以 3 等于 15 (wǔ chéng yǐ sān děng yú shí wǔ) — 5 times 3 equals 15 

5. 七块 (qī kuài) — ¥7.00

6. 1 加 1 等于 2 (yī jiā yī děng yú èr) — 1 plus 1 equals 2

7. 2 减 1 等于 1 (èr jiǎn yī děng yú yī) — 2 minus 1 equals 1

8. 百分之二十五 (bǎi fēn zhī èr shí wǔ) — 25%

9. 20 除以 4 等于 5 (èr shí chú yǐ sì děng yú wǔ) — 20 divided by 4 equals 5

10. 一点七五 (yī diǎn qī wǔ) — 1.75

As you can see, all of these follow a pretty consistent format!

You can find more quizzes and exercises on FluentU. Its Chinese learning program allows you to look up math-related vocabulary in its multimedia dictionary, with grammar info and video examples included.

Just like math, new vocabulary in Chinese might take some getting used to, but with enough practice, they’ll become second nature (and as simple as 1 + 1 = 2).

Whether you’re looking at store discounts, listening to the news or even planning to study math in Chinese, basic Chinese math terms will pop up, so get to know them and watch your understanding of Chinese expand!

And One More Thing...

If you want to continue learning Chinese with interactive and authentic Chinese content, then you'll love FluentU.

FluentU naturally eases you into learning Chinese language. Native Chinese content comes within reach, and you'll learn Chinese as it's spoken in real life.

FluentU has a wide range of contemporary videos—like dramas, TV shows, commercials and music videos.

FluentU App Browse Screen

FluentU brings these native Chinese videos within reach via interactive captions. You can tap on any word to instantly look it up. All words have carefully written definitions and examples that will help you understand how a word is used. Tap to add words you'd like to review to a vocab list.

Interactive Transcripts on FluentU

FluentU's Learn Mode turns every video into a language learning lesson. You can always swipe left or right to see more examples for the word you're learning.

FluentU Has Quizzes for Every Video

The best part is that FluentU always keeps track of your vocabulary. It customizes quizzes to focus on areas that need attention and reminds you when it’s time to review what you’ve learned. You have a 100% personalized experience.

Start using the FluentU website on your computer or tablet or, better yet, download the FluentU app from the iTunes or Google Play store. Click here to take advantage of our current sale! (Expires at the end of this month.)