Hokkien numerals
Sorji (數字 Hokkien numerals). Hokkien has two sets of numbers: colloquial style (peh) and the literary style (buun). The colloquial readings come from Ancient Han Chinese/Old Chinese (Kor Harnguo) (ca. 0 BCE/CE), whereas the literary readings come from Han Chinese during the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279) (Kixntai Harnguo). Nowadays, the peh style is used most, whereas the buun style is mostly used to recite telephone numbers (tiexn'oe). See Buun-peh-i-thak for more info.
Basic numbers in Taiwanese
| 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 |
Cardinal numbers and colloquial system
To count the size of a set, "cardinal numbers" are used. In this case, we use the colloquial system together with a classifier (the classifier will change tone when spoken). For example, cidtaai tiexnsi 🔊 (one television), or Cidboea Hii (one fish).
For numbers greater than ten, id and ji from the literary set (see below) are used in the lower positions. For example, 220 is nngxpahji and 1,100 is cidzheng'id.
Literary readings
Ordinal numbers
For ordinal numbers, when the numerals are preceded by the prefix te (第), only "1st" and "2nd" use literary, the rest use colloquial: texid, texji, texsvaf, texsix, texgo, etc.
Telephone digits
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).