Hokkien numerals

Sorji (數字 Hokkien numerals; numbers in Taiwanese) come in two different sets:

• colloquial (peh) is used the most
• literary (buun) is mostly for telephone numbers

	1	2	3 / 三	4 / 四	5 / 五	6 / 六	7 / 七	8 / 八	9 / 九	10 / 十
Peh	cit (蜀)	nng (兩)	svaf	six	go	lak	chid	pøeq	kao	zap
Buun	id (一)	ji (二)	safm	sux	gvor	liok		pad	kiuo	sip

p⃟ cit, nng, svaf, six, go, lak, chid, peq, kao, zap

b⃟ id, ji, safm, sux, gvor, liok, chid, pad, kiuo, sip

To count "how many"

To count "how many", "cardinal numbers" are used. Use the colloquial system (cit, nng, svaf) together with a classifier (the classifier will change tone when spoken). For example:

cidtaai tiexnsi 🔊, nngxtaai chiaf 🔊, svataai lefngkhix 🔊, ...

one television, two cars, three air conditioners ...

For numbers greater than ten, id and ji begin to be used. For example:

ji-zap-taai chiaf 🔊, ji-zap-id-taai chiaf 🔊, ji-zap-ji-taai chiaf 🔊, ...

20, 21, 22, ...

Once we get up to 100, count the hundreds place with cit, nng, svaf... and from 101, the blank tens place is khoxng (空^† zero):

cidpaq 🔊-taai, cidpaq-khoxng-id 🔊-taai, cidpaq-khoxng-ji 🔊, ...

100, 101, 102, ...

There are shortcuts when the ones place is blank:

pah'id 🔊, cidpaq-zab'id 🔊, ..., pahji 🔊, cidpaq-jixzap'id 🔊

110, 111, ..., 120, 121

Now the hundreds place is counted with nng.

nngxpaq 🔊, nngxpaq-id 🔊, nngxpaq-ji 🔊

200, 210, 220

Thousands:

cidzhefng 🔊, zheng'id 🔊 / cidzheng'id 🔊, nngxchiefn 🔊

1,000, 1,100, 2,000

Ten thousand:

cidban 🔊, cidban-id 🔊, ..., nngxban 🔊, ...

10,000, 11,000, ..., 20,000

Other cases

Ordinal numbers

For ordinal numbers, when the numerals are preceded by the prefix te:

texid, texji, texsvaf, ...

first, second, third, ...

Telephone digits

telephone number: 3945068

Telephone digits are read using the literary system. The digits are grouped according to certain rules and tone sandhi is applied. For example, 3945068 🔊 is read: safm-kiuo-sux, gvor-khoxng, liok-pad (see Khax Tiexn'oe).