Numbering and Counting
Numbers and Amounts
Numbers and counting in Japanese are difficult enough to require its own section. First of all, the number system is in units of four instead of three, which can make converting into English quite difficult. Also, there are things called counters, which are required to count different types of objects, animals, or people. We will learn the most generic and widely used counters to get you started so that you can learn more on your own. To be honest, counters might be the only thing that'll make you want to quit learning Japanese, it's that bad. I recommend you digest only a little bit of this section at a time because it's awfully a lot of things to memorize.
The Number System
The Japanese number system is spread into units of four. So a number such as 10,000,000 is actually split up as 1000,0000. However, thanks to the strong influence of the Western world and the standardization of numbers, when numbers are actually written, the split-off is three digits. Here are the first ten numbers.
| Numerals |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
10 |
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／ |
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／ |
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As the chart indicates, 4 can either be 「し」 or 「よん」 and 7 can either be 「しち」 or 「なな」. Basically, both are acceptable up to 10. However, past ten, the reading is almost always 「よん」 and 「なな」. In general, 「よん」 and 「なな」 are preferred over 「し」 and 「しち」 in most circumstances.
You can simply count from 1 to 99 with just these ten numbers. Japanese is easier than English in this respect because you do not have to memorize separate words such as "twenty" or "fifty". In Japanese, it's simply just "two ten" and "five ten".
（１） 三十一 （さんじゅういち） = 31
（２） 五十四 （ごじゅうよん）= 54
（３） 七十七 （ななじゅうなな）= 77
（４） 二十 （にじゅう） = 20
Notice that numbers are either always written in kanji or numerals because hiragana can get rather long and hard to decipher.
Numbers past 99
Here are the higher numbers:
| Numerals |
100 |
1,000 |
10,000 |
10^8 |
10^12 |
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Notice how the numbers jumped four digits from 10^4 to 10^8 between 万 and 億? That's because Japanese is divided into units of four. Once you get past 1万 (10,000), you start all over until you reach 9,999万, then it rotates to 1億 (100,000,000). By the way, 百 is 100 and 千 is 1,000, but anything past that, and you need to attach a 1 so the rest of the units become 一万 (10^4)、一億 (10^8)、一兆 (10^12).
Now you can count up to 9,999,999,999,999,999 or 9,999兆 just by chaining the numbers same as before. This is where the problems start, however. Try saying 「いちちょう」 、「ろくひゃく」、「さんせん」 really quickly, you'll notice it's difficult because of the repetition of similar consonant sounds. Therefore, Japanese people have decided to make it easier on themselves by pronouncing them as 「いっちょう」、「ろっぴゃく」、and 「さんぜん」. We already discussed this near the end of the
Kanji section. Unfortunately, it makes it all the harder for you to remember when to pronounce what. Here are all the slight sound changes.
| Numerals |
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| 300 |
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| 600 |
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| 800 |
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| 3000 |
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| 8000 |
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（１） 四万三千七十六 （よんまんさんぜんななじゅうろく） = 43,076
（２） 七億六百二十四万九千二百二十二 （ななおくろっぴゃくにじゅうよんまんきゅうせんにひゃくにじゅうに） = 706,249,222
（３） 五百兆二万一 （ごひゃくちょうにまんいち） = 500,000,000,020,001
Notice that it is customary to write large numbers only in numerals as even kanji can become difficult to decipher.
Some of you may be clamoring for larger numbers but you'll hardly ever use 「億」 much less 「兆」. I will guarantee that you will not need to know this but I looked up a list for curiosity's sake.
Numbers smaller or less than 1
Zero in Japanese is 「零」 but 「ゼロ」 or 「マル」 is more common in modern Japanese. There is no special method for reading decimals, you simply say 「点」 for the dot and read each individual number after the decimal point. Here's an example:
（１） 0.0021 - ゼロ、点、ゼロ、ゼロ、二、一。
For negative numbers, everything is the same as positive numbers except that you say 「マイナス」 first.
（１） マイナス二十九 = -29
Counting and Counters
Ah, and now we come to the fun part. In Japanese, when you are simply counting numbers, everything is just as you would expect, 一、二、三、 and so on. However, if you want to count any type of object, you have to use something called a counter which depends on what type of object you are counting and on top of this, there are various sound changes similar to the ones we saw with 六百, etc.. The counter themselves are usually single kanji characters that often have a special reading just for the counter. First, let's learn the counters for dates
Dates
The year is very easy. All you have to do is say the number and add 「年」 which is pronounced here as 「ねん」. For example, Year 2003 becomes 2003年 (にせんさんねん）. The catch is that there is another calendar which starts over every time a new emperor ascends the throne. The year is preceded by the era, for example this year is: 平成15年. My birthday, 1981 is 昭和56年 (The Showa era lasted from 1926 to 1989). You may think that you don't need to know this but if you're going to be filling out forms in Japan, they often ask you for your birthday or the current date in the Japanese calendar （和暦）. So here's a neat converter you can use to convert to the Japanese calendar.
Saying the months is actually easier than English because all you have to do is write the number (either in numerals or kanji) of the month and add 「月」 which is read as 「がつ」. However, you need to pay attention to April （４月）, July （７月）, and September （９月） which are pronounced 「しがつ」、「しちがつ」、and 「くがつ」 respectively.
Finally, we get to the days of the month, which is where the headache starts. The first day of the month is 「ついたち」 （一日）; different from 「いちにち」 （一日）, which means "one day". Besides this and some other exceptions we'll soon cover, you can simply say the number and add 「日」 which is pronounced here as 「にち」. For example, the 26th becomes 26日 （にじゅうろくにち）. Pretty simple, however, the first 10 days, the 14th, 19th, 20th, 29th have special readings that you must separately memorize. If you like memorizing things, you'll have a ball here. Notice that the kanji doesn't change but the reading does.