Vietnamese numerals

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Historically Vietnamese has two sets of numbers: one is etymologically native Vietnamese; the other uses Sino-Vietnamese vocabulary. In the modern language the native Vietnamese vocabulary is used for both everyday counting and mathematical purposes. The Sino-Vietnamese vocabulary is used only in fixed expressions or in Sino-Vietnamese words, in a similar way that Latin and Greek numerals are used in modern English (e.g., the bi- prefix in bicycle).

Contents

For numbers up to one million, native Vietnamese terms are often used the most, whilst mixed Sino-Vietnamese origin words and native Vietnamese words are used for units of one million or above.

Concept

For non-official purposes prior to the 20th century, Vietnamese had a writing system known as Hán-Nôm. Sino-Vietnamese numbers were written in chữ Hán and native vocabulary was written in chữ Nôm. Hence, there are two concurrent systems in Vietnamese nowadays in the romanized script, one for native Vietnamese and one for Sino-Vietnamese.

In the modern Vietnamese writing system, numbers are written as Arabic numerals or in the romanized script chữ Quốc ngữ (một, hai, ba), which had a chữ Nôm character. Less common for numbers under one million are the numbers of Sino-Vietnamese origin (nhất [1], nhị [2], tam [3]), using chữ Hán (Chinese characters). Chữ Hán and chữ Nôm has all but become obsolete in the Vietnamese language, with the Latin-style of reading, writing, and pronouncing native Vietnamese and Sino-Vietnamese being widespread instead, when France occupied Vietnam. Chữ Hán can still be seen in traditional temples or traditional literature or in cultural artefacts. The Hán-Nôm Institute resides in Hanoi, Vietnam.

Basic figures

The following table is an overview of the basic Vietnamese numeric figures, provided in both native and Sino-Vietnamese counting systems. The form that is highlighted in green is the most widely used for all purposes whilst the ones highlighted in blue are seen as archaic but may still be in use. There are slight differences between the Hanoi and Saigon dialects of Vietnamese, readings between each are differentiated below.

NumberNative Vietnamese Sino-Vietnamese Notes
chữ quốc ngữ chữ Nôm chữ Quốc ngữ chữ Hán
0khônglinh空 • 〇(零)The foreign-language borrowed word zêrô (zêro, dê-rô) is often used in physics-related publications, or colloquially.
1một𠬠nhất一(壹)
2hai𠄩nhị二(貳)
3ba𠀧tam三(叄)
4bốn𦊚tứ四(肆)In the ordinal number system, the Sino-Vietnamese () is more systematic; as the digit 4 appears after the number 20 when counting upwards, the Sino-Vietnamese () is more commonly used.
5năm𠄼ngũ五(伍)In numbers above ten that end in five (such as 115, 25, 1055), five is alternatively pronounced as lăm (𠄻) to avoid possible confusion with năm (𢆥), a homonym of năm, meaning "year". Exceptions to this rule are numbers ending in 05 (such as 605, 9405).
6sáu𦒹lục六(陸)
7bảy𦉱thất七(柒)In some Vietnamese dialects, it is also read as bẩy.
8tám𠔭bát八(捌)
9chín𠃩cửu九(玖)
10mười • một chục𨒒 • 𠬠𠦹thập十(拾)Chục is used colloquially. "Ten eggs" may be called một chục quả trứng rather than mười quả trứng. It is also used in compounds like mươi instead of mười (e.g. hai mươi/chục "twenty").
100trăm • một trăm𤾓 • 𠬠𤾓bách(bá)百(佰)The Sino-Vietnamese bách () is commonly used as a morpheme (in compound words), and is rarely used in the field of mathematics as a digit. Example: bách phát bách trúng (百發百中).
1,000nghìn (ngàn) • một nghìn (ngàn)𠦳 • 𠬠𠦳thiên千(仟)The Sino-Vietnamese thiên () is commonly used as a morpheme, but rarely used in a mathematical sense, however only in counting bricks, it is used. Example: thiên kim (千金). Nghìn is the standard word in Northern Vietnam, whilst ngàn is the word used in the South.
10,000mười nghìn (ngàn)𨒒𠦳vạn • một vạn萬 • 𠬠萬The một (𠬠) within một vạn (𠬠萬) is a native Vietnamese (intrinsic term) morpheme. This was officially used in Vietnamese in the past, however, this unit has become less common after 1945, but in counting bricks, it is still widely used. The borrowed native pronunciation muôn for is still used in slogans such as muôn năm (ten thousand years/endless). There is also the obsolete variant of muôn, man.
100,000trăm nghìn (ngàn) • một trăm nghìn (ngàn)𤾓𠦳 • 𠬠𤾓𠦳ức • một ức • mười vạn [1] 億 • 𠬠億 • 𨒒萬The mười (𨒒) and một (𠬠) within mười vạn (𨒒萬) and một ức (𠬠億) are native Vietnamese (intrinsic term) morphemes. Vẹo () is an obsolete Vietnamese word meaning 100,000.
1,000,000(none)(none)triệu • một triệu • một trăm vạn [2] 兆 • 𠬠兆 • 𠬠𤾓萬The một (𠬠) and trăm (𤾓) within một triệu (𠬠兆) and một trăm vạn (𠬠𤾓萬) are native Vietnamese (intrinsic term) morphemes.
10,000,000(mixed usage of Sino-Vietnamese and native Vietnamese systems)(mixed usage of Sino-Vietnamese and native Vietnamese systems)mười triệu𨒒兆The mười (𨒒) within mười triệu (𨒒兆) is a native Vietnamese (intrinsic term) morpheme.
100,000,000(mixed usage of Sino-Vietnamese and native Vietnamese systems)(mixed usage of Sino-Vietnamese and native Vietnamese systems)trăm triệu𤾓兆The trăm (𤾓) within trăm triệu (𤾓兆) is a native Vietnamese (intrinsic term) morpheme.
1,000,000,000(none)(none)tỷ [3]
1012(mixed usage of Sino-Vietnamese and native Vietnamese systems)(mixed usage of Sino-Vietnamese and native Vietnamese systems)nghìn (ngàn) tỷ𠦳秭
1015(none)(none)triệu tỷ兆秭
1018(none)(none)tỷ tỷ秭秭

Some other features of Vietnamese numerals include the following:

Other figures

Number chữ Quốc ngữ Hán-Nôm Notes
11mười một𨒒𠬠
12mười hai • một tá𨒒𠄩 • 𠬠打Một tá (𠬠打) is often used within mathematics-related occasions, to which represents the foreign loanword "dozen".
14mười bốn • mười tư𨒒𦊚 • 𨒒四Mười tư (𨒒四) is often used within literature-related occasions, to which () forms part of the Sino-Vietnamese vocabulary.
15mười lăm𨒒𠄻Here, five is pronounced lăm (𠄻), or also nhăm (𠄶) by some speakers in the north.
19mười chín𨒒𠃩
20hai mươi • hai chục𠄩𨒒 • 𠄩𨔿
21hai mươi mốt𠄩𨒒𠬠For numbers which include the digit 1 from 21 to 91, the number 1 is pronounced mốt.
24hai mươi tư𠄩𨒒四When the digit 4 appears in numbers after 20 as the last digit of a 3-digit group, it is more common to use ().
25hai mươi lăm𠄩𨒒𠄻Here, five is pronounced lăm.
50năm mươi • năm chục𠄼𨒒 • 𠄼𨔿When 𨒒 (10) appears after the number 20, the pronunciation changes to mươi.
101một trăm linh một • một trăm lẻ một𠬠𤾓零𠬠 • 𠬠𤾓𥘶𠬠Một trăm linh một (𠬠𤾓零𠬠) is the Northern form, where linh () forms part of the Sino-Vietnamese vocabulary; một trăm lẻ một (𠬠𤾓𥘶𠬠) is commonly used in the Southern and Central dialect groups of Vietnam.
1001một nghìn (ngàn) không trăm linh một • một nghìn (ngàn) không trăm lẻ một𠬠𠦳空𤾓零𠬠 • 𠬠𠦳空𤾓𥛭𠬠When the hundreds digit is occupied by a zero, these are expressed using không trăm (空𤾓).
10055mười nghìn (ngàn) không trăm năm mươi lăm𨒒𠦳空𤾓𠄼𨒒𠄻

Ordinal numbers

Vietnamese ordinal numbers are generally preceded by the prefix thứ-, which is a Sino-Vietnamese word which corresponds to . For the ordinal numbers of one and four, the Sino-Vietnamese readings nhất () and (四/𦊛) are more commonly used; two is occasionally rendered using the Sino-Vietnamese nhì (). In all other cases, the native Vietnamese number is used.

In formal cases, the ordinal number with the structure "đệ () + Sino-Vietnamese numbers" is used, especially in calling the generation of monarches, with an example being Nữ vương Elizabeth đệ nhị (女王 Elizabeth 第二) (Queen Elizabeth II), or the Second Spanish Republic being called Đệ nhị Cộng hoà Tây Ban Nha (第二共和西班牙).

Ordinal number chữ Quốc ngữ Hán-Nôm
1stthứ nhất次一
2ndthứ hai • thứ nhì次𠄩 • 次二
3rdthứ ba次𠀧
4ththứ tư次四
5ththứ năm次𠄼
"n"ththứ "n"次「n」

Footnotes

  1. Hán Việt Tự Điển Thiều Chửu:「(1): ức, mười vạn là một ức.
  2. Hán Việt Tự Điển Thiều Chửu:「(3): triệu, một trăm vạn.
  3. Hán Việt Từ Điển Trích Dẫn 漢越辭典摘引 Archived 2011-07-28 at the Wayback Machine :「Một ngàn lần một triệu là một tỉ 秭 (*). Tức là 1.000.000.000. § Ghi chú: Ngày xưa, mười vạn 萬 là một ức 億, một vạn ức là một tỉ 秭.
  4. Triệu means one million in Vietnamese, but the Chinese number that is the source of the Vietnamese word, "兆" (Mandarin zhào), is officially rendered as 1012 in Taiwan, and commonly designated as 106 in the People's Republic of China (See various scale systems).

See also