Counting Thousands → ... + Cheng
In Hokkien, "thousand" is Cheng / 千. Simply add it behind any numbers from 1 to 9 to form numbers in the thousands.
e.g. Nng-cheng / 两千 / Two thousand
e.g. Si-cheng / 四千 / Four thousand
e.g. Lak-cheng / 六千 / Six thousand
Combine what you know about counting in the hundreds, and you'll be able to express more complex numbers:
6460
= 6000 + 400 + 60
= Lak-cheng + Si-pah + Lak-cap
Counting Tens of Thousands → ... + Bān
The Hokkien word for "tens of thousands" is Ban / 万.
e.g. Chit-ban / 七万 / Seventy thousand
e.g. Kau-ban / 九万 / Ninety thousand
Saying 79,700 will be:
= 70,000 + 9,000 + 700
= Chit-ban + Kau-cheng + Chit-pah
Alternatively, 79,700 can also be read as:
= 79 x 1000 + 700
= Chit-cap kau x Cheng + Chit-pah
Counting Hundreds of Thousands → ... + Cap-ban, or ... + Pah-cheng
Supposedly, there is an exact word to represent "Hundreds of Thousands" in Hokkien: Ek / 亿. However, I have never heard of it being used in Singapore, Penang, or Medan.
In most cases, to represent hundreds of thousands, people use ... + Cap-ban / ... + 十万.
e.g. Pueh-cap-ban / 八十万 / Eight hundred thousand.
In Medan, people typically use ... + Pah-cheng instead of ... + Cap-ban.
e.g. Peh-pah-cheng.
Cap-ban and pah-cheng are essentially the same. Numerically, cap-ban breaks down to 10 (Cap) x 10,000 (Ban), whereas pah-cheng is 100 (Pah) x 1,000 (Cheng).
Counting Millions → ... + Pah Ban, or ... + Tiau
Pah-ban / 百万, is numerically formed from 100 (Pah) x 10,000 (Ban).
e.g. Pueh-pah-ban / 八百万 / Eight million
e.g. Go-pah-ban / 五百万 / Five million
Another way to count millions is by using the word Tiau / 兆. Tiau is very often used in Medan Hokkien.
e.g. Sa-tiau / 三兆 / Three million
e.g. Ch-tiau / 一兆 / One million
Your Turn
Try reading these numbers in Hokkien. Feel free to write them out in the comment section below!
- 5,030
- 21,908
- 431,007
- 9,965,750
- 395,475,000
Final Review
So that's it! If you have gone through all my three-part blog series on how to count in Hokkien, now you should know how to count from 0 to the Millions! Let's do a final review of everything you should remember:
0: Leng / Khong
1: Cit / Ch / It
2: Nng / No / Ji
3: Sa
4: Si
5: Go
6: Lak
7: Chit
8: Pueh / Peh
9: Kau
10: Cap
Hundreds: ... + Pah
Thousands: ... + Cheng
Tens of Thousands: ... + Ban
Hundreds of Thousands: ... + Cap-ban, or ... + Pah-cheng
Millions: ... + Pah-ban, or ... + Tiau
All Lessons on Counting in Hokkien
- Let's Count from 0 to 10 in Hokkien
- Counting from 11 to the Hundreds in Hokkien
- Counting from 1,000 to the Millions in Hokkien
List of Hokkien Lessons in LingoNomad
For a list of Hokkien lessons in this website, visit this page.
