Chinese numeral

Basic counting in Chinese

Traditionally, the Chinese numeral system is a sign-value notation consisting of the same Chinese characters used by the Chinese written language to write spoken numbers. Similar to spelling-out numbers in English (e.g., "one thousand nine hundred forty-five"), it is not an independent system per se. Since it reflects spoken language, it generally does not use the positional system as in Arabic numerals, in the same way that spelling out numbers in English does not. In modern times, Chinese numerals may adopt a positional system in some rare contexts such as sequence numbers.