Level 2 · Lesson 12

六七八九十
Six to ten

六、七、八、九、十。十一，十二，二十。

Six to ten, and how Chinese builds every number up to ninety-nine out of them.

听 · Listen

对话
 李明 —  安娜，你说六、七、八、九、十。 
Anna, say six, seven, eight, nine, ten.  
 安娜 —  六、七、八、九、十。 
Six, seven, eight, nine, ten.  
 李明 —  很好！十一呢？ 
Very good! And eleven?  
 安娜 —  十一、十二、十三……十九，十十。 
Eleven, twelve, thirteen… nineteen, ten-ten.  
 李明 —  不是十十，是二十。 
Not 'ten-ten' — it's èrshí, twenty.  
 安娜 —  二十。十二、二十。 
Twenty. Twelve, twenty.  
 李明 —  很好！二十一、二十二、二十三。 
Very good! Twenty-one, twenty-two, twenty-three.  
 安娜 —  谢谢！我明天也学。 
Thanks! I'll practise tomorrow too.  

讲解 · Explanation

六、七、八、九、十。

六 liù falls. 七 qī and 八 bā are both high and level. 九 jiǔ dips like 五. 十 shí rises. Give 十 shí and 四 sì a minute of their own: they are the pair learners mix up most. 十 begins with the tongue curled back, sh, and the voice rises; 四 begins with a flat s, and the voice falls.

十一，十二，……，二十，二十一。

Everything from 11 to 99 is built from the ten words you now have, and the position of 十 decides the arithmetic. A number AFTER 十 is added: 十一 is 10 + 1, 十五 is 10 + 5, 十九 is 10 + 9. A number BEFORE 十 multiplies: 二十 is 2 tens, 三十 is 3 tens, 九十 is 9 tens. Put both together and you get 二十一 (2 tens + 1) and 九十九 (9 tens + 9). So 十二 and 二十 are made of the same two characters in opposite order, and they are 12 and 20.

十二。二十。二十一。

Two spelling habits for the pinyin line. A number is written as one word, however many syllables it has: shíyī, èrshí, èrshíyī. And when a syllable that begins with a, o or e follows another one, an apostrophe keeps them apart — hence shí'èr and èrshí'èr, so that no one reads shi-er as a single blurred syllable.

生词 · Vocabulary

词	Meaning	注 · Note
六	six
七	seven	high level tone, like 八
八	eight	a lucky number in China
九	nine	dipping third tone
十	ten	rising tone; compare 四 sì

练习 · Practice

六、七、______、九、十。 Fill in the missing number.

十二是二十吗？ Is 十二 the same number as 二十?

老师说 jiǔ，你写什么？ The teacher says jiǔ. Which character do you write?

排一排。 Put these five numbers in order, six to ten.

十八、十九、______、二十一。 Fill in the number between 19 and 21.

用一用 · Use it

一、二、三、四、五、六、七、八、九、十。

Count aloud from one to ten, then keep going to twenty: 十一, 十二 … 十九, 二十. Do it once more from twenty back down to one. Then say your own phone number digit by digit, and your street number — Chinese reads both one digit at a time. Any hesitation will be at 十 or 四; drill that pair on its own.