Basic Japanese

Fuji-yama by Yamashita Kiyoshi

NUMBERS

Table for Numbers

HOME > Language > Basic Japanese > Numbers

If you cannot count numbers in Japanese smoothely, it is out of the question to enjoy shopping. The best way to come into contact with the local people is through vendors. These numbers come first, put above grammar, idioms and anything else.

Zero is called "rei" or " zero ". These numbers sometimes have two ways of pronunciation, and in most cases, either will do. Ten is not "ju", but "ju-u"(another "u" must be added)

When you want to say some number, just put together these sounds. Zeros in-between are not usually pronounced.

EX. 79***nana-jyu-ku / nana-jyu-kyu 134***hyaku-san-jyu-yon 2 004***ni-sen-yon 30 012***san-man-jyu-ni

But be careful when you try to pronuonce hyaku (100), because there are three ways of pronounciation; hyaku, byaku, ppyaku. So look at these 9 examples.

  • hyaku (100) or rarely, i-ppyaku
  • ni-hyaku (200)
  • san-byaku (300)
  • yon-hyaku (400)
  • go-hyaku (500)
  • ro-ppyaku (600)
  • nana-hyaku (700)
  • ha-ppyaku (800)
  • kyu-hyaku (900)
Also be careful when you pronunce sen (1000). There is an only one exception: san-zen (3000)

Basic Numbers
1  ichi 2 ni
3  san 4   yon / yo /shi (1)
5  go 6  roku
7   shichi/nana (2) 8 hachi
9   kyu/ku (3) 10  jyu
11 十一 jyu-ichi 12 十二 jyu-ni
13 十三 jyu-san 14 十四 jyu-yon/jyu-shi
15 十五 jyu-go 16 十六 jyu-roku
17 十七 jyu-shichi/jyu-nana 18 十八 jyu-hachi
19 十九 jyu-ku 20 二十 ni-jyu
21ni-jyu-ichi 22 ni-jyu-ni 23 ni-jyu-san 24 ni-jyu-yon 25 ni-jyu-go 26 ni-jyu-roku 27 ni-jyu-shichi 28 ni-jyu-hachi 29 ni-jyu-ku
30 三十 san-jyu 40 四十 yon-jyu
31 san-jyu-ichi 32 san-jyu-ni 33 san-jyu-sab 34 san-jyu-yon 35 san-jyu-go 36 san-jyu-roku 37 san-jyu-nana 38 san-jyu-hachi 39 san-jyu-ku 41 yon-jyu-ichi 42 yon-jyu-ni 43 yon-jyu-sab 44 yon-jyu-yon 45 yon-jyu-go 46 yon-jyu-roku 47 yon-jyu-nana 48 yon-jyu-hachi 49 yon-jyu-ku
50 五十 go-jyu 60 六十 roku-jyu
51go-jyu-ichi 61 roku-jyu-ichi
70 七十 nana-jyu 80 八十 hachi-jyu
71 nana-jyu-ichi 81 hachi-jyu-ichi
90 きゅうじゅう kyu-jyu 100  hyaku
90 kyu-ju-ichi 101 hyaku-ichi
1 000  sen 10 000 一万 ichi-man
1 001 sen-ichi 10 001ichi-man-ichi
100 000 十万 jyu-man 1 000 000 百万 hyaku-man
110 000 jyu-ichi-man 1 500 000 hyaku-go-jyu-man
10 000 000 一千万 issen-man 100 000 000 一億 ichi-oku
13 000 000 issen-san-byaku-man 120 000 000 ichi-oku-ni-sen-man

Notes; The number 4, 7, and 9 have diffrent ways of reading according to a word to which they are attached. These below are examples.

Notes (1) (2) (3)
number 4 number 7 number 9
回 ( times ) 四回 よんかい yon-kai 七回 ななかい nana-kai 九回 きゅうかい kyuu-kai
階 ( storied ) 四階 よんかい yon-kai 七階 ななかい nana-kai 九階 きゅうかい kyuu-kai
個 (the number of piieces ) 四個 よんこ yon-ko 七個 ななこ nana-ko 九個 きゅうこ kyu-ko
字 ( the number of characters ) 四字 よじ yo-ji 七字 ななじ nana-ji 九字 きゅうじ kyu-ji
時 ( o'clock ) 四時 よじ yo-ji 七時 しちじ shichi-ji 九時 くじ ku-ji
月 ( month ) 四月 しがつ shi-gatsu 七月 しちがつshichi-gatsu 九月 くがつ ku-gatu

These special numbers below are used only when you count less than 10 (somthing like apples, eggs, stones, peas etc), or when you count slowly in talking to small children. All those numbers from one to nine are pronunced with "-tsu" in the end.

Special Numbers
ひとつhitotsu ふたつhutatsu
みっつmittsu よっつyottsu
いつつitsutsu むっつmuttsu
ななつnanatsu やっつyattsu
ここのつkokonotsu 10 とうtoo

By using a table for numbers, you can count numbers at your own command.

Howeverhar you may try to remember these numbers, you cannot use them in the practical situation if you memorize them in the upward order. In order to be able to recall any numbers you have to call up the numbers randomly with the help of the talbe for numbers. You can also make small slips of papers when you try to memorize from 1 to 20.

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19
20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29
30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39
40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49
50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59
60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69
70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79
80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89
90 91 92 83 94 95 96 97 98 99

_

the day of the week

the day Japanese pronunciation
Monday 月曜日 げつようび getsuyoo-bi
Tuesday 火曜日 かようび kayoo-bi
Wednesday 水曜日 すいようび suiyoo-bi
Thursday 木曜日 もくようび mokuyoo-bi
Friday 金曜日 きんようび kinnyoo-bi
Saturday 土曜日 どようび doyoo-bi
Sunday 日曜日 にちようび nichiyoo-bi

_

the day of the month

the day Japanese pronunciation
1st 一日 ついたち tsuitachi
2nd 二日 ふつか hutsuka
3rd 三日 みっか mikka
4th 四日 よっか yokka
5th 五日 いつか itsuka
6th 六日 むいか muika
7th 七日 なのか nanoka
8th 八日 ようか yooka
9th 九日 ここのか kokonoka
10th 十日 とうか tooka
20th 二十日 はつか hatsuka
24th 二十四日 にじゅうよっか nijyu-yokka

Note; The rest of the days of the month is simply called " basic number plus nichi". For example, 15th..." jyu-go nichi ", 28th..." ni-jyu-hachi nicihi ".

Note; Do you know what " 二日酔い hutsuka-yoi " means ? " yoi " means being drunk. Yes, this means hangover !!

_

次ページへ

HOME > Language > Basic Japanese > Numbers

inserted by FC2 system