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).
For numbers up to one million, native Vietnamese terms is 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 system 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 wide spread 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 in 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.
| Number | Native Vietnamese | Sino-Vietnamese | Notes | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| chữ quốc ngữ | chữ Nôm | chữ Quốc ngữ | chữ Hán | ||
| 0 | không | 空 | linh | 空 • 〇（零） | The foreign-language borrowed word zêrô (zêro, dê-rô) is often used in physics-related publications, or colloquially. |
| 1 | một | 𠬠 | nhất | 一（壹） | |
| 2 | hai | 𠄩 | nhị | 二（貳） | |
| 3 | ba | 𠀧 | tam | 三（叄） | |
| 4 | bốn | 𦊚 | tứ | 四（肆） | In the ordinal number system, the Sino-Vietnamese tư (四) is more systematic; as the digit 4 appears after the number 20 when counting upwards, the Sino-Vietnamese tư (四) is more commonly used. |
| 5 | năm | 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). |
| 6 | sáu | 𦒹 | lục | 六（陸） | |
| 7 | bảy | 𦉱 | thất | 七（柒） | In some Vietnamese dialects, it is also read as bẩy. |
| 8 | tám | 𠔭 | bát | 八（捌） | |
| 9 | chín | 𠃩 | cửu | 九（玖） | |
| 10 | mười • một chục | 𨒒 | 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"). |
| 100 | trăm • một trăm | 𤾓 • 𠬠𤾓 | bách (bá) | 百（佰） | The Sino-Vietnamese bách (百) 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). |
| 1,000 | nghìn (ngàn) • một nghìn (ngàn) | 𠦳 • 𠬠𠦳 | thiên | 千（仟） | The Sino-Vietnamese thiên (千) 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. |
| 10,000 | mười 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 萬 is still used in slogans such as muôn năm (ten thousand years/endless). |
| 100,000 | trăm 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. |
| 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 | 秭[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:
- Outside of fixed Sino-Vietnamese expressions, Sino-Vietnamese words are usually used in combination with native Vietnamese words. For instance, mười triệu combines native mười and Sino-Vietnamese triệu.
- Modern Vietnamese separates place values in thousands instead of myriads. For example, "123123123" is recorded in Vietnamese as một trăm hai mươi ba triệu một trăm hai mươi ba nghìn (ngàn) một trăm hai mươi ba, or 123 million, 123 thousand and 123.[4] Meanwhile, in Chinese, Japanese & Korean, the same number is rendered as 1億2312萬3123 (1 hundred-million, 2312 ten-thousand and 3123).
- Sino-Vietnamese numbers are not in frequent use in modern Vietnamese. Sino-Vietnamese numbers such as vạn (萬) 'ten thousand', ức (億) 'hundred-thousand' and triệu (兆) 'million' are used for figures exceeding one thousand, but with the exception of triệu are becoming less commonly used. Number values for these words are used for each numeral increasing tenfold in digit value, 億 being the number for 105, 兆 for 106, et cetera. However, triệu in Vietnamese and 兆 in Modern Chinese now have different values.
Other figures
| Number | chữ Quốc ngữ | Hán-Nôm | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 11 | mười một | 𨒒𠬠 | |
| 12 | mười hai • một tá | 𨒒𠄩 • 𠬠打 | Một tá (𠬠打) is often used within mathematics-related occasions, to which tá represents the foreign loanword "dozen". |
| 14 | mười bốn • mười tư | 𨒒𦊚 • 𨒒四 | Mười tư (𨒒四) is often used within literature-related occasions, to which tư (四) forms part of the Sino-Vietnamese vocabulary. |
| 15 | mười lăm | 𨒒𠄻 | Here, five is pronounced lăm (𠄻), or also nhăm (𠄶) by some speakers in the north. |
| 19 | mười chín | 𨒒𠃩 | |
| 20 | hai mươi • hai chục | 𠄩𨒒 • 𠄩𨔿 | |
| 21 | hai mươi mốt | 𠄩𨒒𠬠 | For numbers which include the digit 1 from 21 to 91, the number 1 is pronounced mốt. |
| 24 | hai 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 tư (四). |
| 25 | hai mươi lăm | 𠄩𨒒𠄻 | Here, five is pronounced lăm. |
| 50 | năm mươi • năm chục | 𠄼𨒒 • 𠄼𨔿 | When 𨒒 (10) appears after the number 20, the pronunciation changes to mươi. |
| 101 | một 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 (零) 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. |
| 1001 | một nghìn (ngàn) không trăm linh một • một nghìn (ngàn) không trăm lẻ một | 𠬠𠦳空𤾓零𠬠 • 𠬠𠦳空𤾓𥘶𠬠 | When the hundreds digit is occupied by a zero, these are expressed using không trăm (空𤾓). |
| 10055 | mười nghìn (ngàn) không trăm năm mươi lăm | 𨒒𠦳空𤾓𠄼𨒒𠄻 |
- When the number 1 appears after 20 in the unit digit, the pronunciation changes to mốt.
- When the number 4 appears after 20 in the unit digit, it is more common to use Sino-Vietnamese tư (四).
- When the number 5 appears after 10 in the unit digit, the pronunciation changes to lăm (𠄻).
- When mười appears after 20, the pronunciation changes to mươi.
Ordinal numbers
Vietnamese ordinal numbers are generally preceded by the prefix thứ-, which is a Sino-Vietnamese word which corresponds to 次. For the ordinal numbers of one and four, the Sino-Vietnamese readings nhất (一) and tư (四) are more commonly used; two is occasionally rendered using the Sino-Vietnamese nhì (二). In all other cases, the native Vietnamese number is used.
In formal cases, the ordinal number with the structure "đệ (第) + 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).
| Ordinal number | chữ Quốc ngữ | Hán-Nôm |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | thứ nhất | 次一 |
| 2nd | thứ hai • thứ nhì | 次𠄩 • 次二 |
| 3rd | thứ ba | 次𠀧 |
| 4th | thứ tư | 次四 |
| 5th | thứ năm | 次𠄼 |
| "n"th | thứ "n" | 次「n」 |