[Japanese] Numbers & Counting

Japanese counting is easy. You just have to memorize basic numbers, and you’ll find the rest of the trials easy.

No.	漢字 - Kanji	ひらがな - Hiragana	English
1	一	いち (ichi)	One
2	二	に (ni)	Two
3	三	さん (san)	Three
4	四	よん (yon), or し (shi)	Four
5	五	ご (go)	Five
6	六	ろく (roku)	Six
7	七	なな (nana), or しち (shichi)	Seven
8	八	はち (hachi)	Eight
9	九	きゅう (kyuu)	Nine
10	十	じゅう (juu)	Ten
100	百	ひゃく (hyaku)	Hundred
1000	千	せん (sen), orいっせん (issen)	Thousand

Notes:

Above these, yon is preferred ‘four’ and nana for ‘seven’. (There are a few exceptions, but shii is avoided because it is also the word for “death”. Due to relevant superstitions, buildings can be found without a fourth floor, room numbers with no fours, etc.)

After you memorize the numbers above, please proceed to the next table!

No.	漢字 - Kanji	Romāji
11	十一	juu ichi (This is literally "ten, one.")
12	十二	juu ni
13	十三	juu san
14	十四	juu yon
15	十五	juu go
16	十六	juu roku
17	十七	juu nana
18	十八	juu hachi
19	十九	juu kyuu
20	二十	ni juu (This is literally "two, ten." Think of it as "two tens.")
21	二十一	ni juu ichi
22	二十に	ni juu ni
23	二十三	ni juu san

The pattern should now be easy to see. Accordingly:

No.	漢字 - Kanji	Romāji
27	二十七	ni juu nana
35	三十五	san juu go
48	四十八	yon juu hachi
56	五十六	go juu roku
63	六十二	roku juu san
72	七十二	nana juu ni
89	八十九	hachi juu kyuu
94	九十四	kyuu juu yon
100	百	hyaku
200	二百	ni hyaku
208	二百八	ni hyaku hachi
242	二四十二	ni hyaku yon juu ni
290	二百九十	ni hyaku kyuu juu
300	三百	san byaku
350	三百五十	san byaku go juu
385	三百八十五	san byaku hachi juu go
400	四百	yon hyaku
423	四百二十三	yon hyaku ni juu san
500	五百	go hyaku
600	六百	roppyaku
700	七百	hana hyaku
800	八百	happyaku
900	九百	kuu hyaku
1,000	千(or 一千)	sen (or issen)
1,200	千二百	sen ni hyaku
1,632	千六百	sen roppyaku san juu ni
2,000	二千	ni sen
2,800	二千八百	ni sen happyaku
3,000	三千	san zen
4,000	四千	yon sen
5,000	五千	go sen
6,000	六千	roku sen
7,000	七千	nana sen
8,000	八千	hassen
9,000	九千	kyuu sen
10,000	一万	ichi man (Not juu sen. Man is the Japanese for units of 10,000. Unlike hyaku and sen, ichialways precedes man for numbers 10,000 to 19,999.)
17,000	一万七千	ichi man nana sen
18,570	一万八千五百七十	ichi man hassen go hyaku nana juu
20,000	二万	ni man
25,000	五百万	ni man go sen
30,000	一千万	san man
50,000	一億	go man
100,000	二千八百	juu man
200,000	三千	ni juu man
250,000	四千	ni juu go man
1,000,000	五千	hyaku man
2,000,000	六千	ni hyaku man
5,000,000	七千	go hyaku man
10,000,000	八千	issen man
100,000,000	九千	ichi oku (Oku is the next major unit jump when reaching ichi man man, or "ten thousand ten thousands.")

Hora! Yasui desu ne? (See! It’s easy, right?)

Special Numbers

Fractions & Decimals

A half is 半分 (hanbun).

A quarter (1/4) is 四分の一 (yon bun no ichi), literally "one of four parts."

Three-fourths (3/4) is 四分の三 (yon bun no san), or "three of four parts."

Two-thirds (2/3) is san bun no ni, and so on.

A decimal point is called ten, so:

1.5 一点五 (itten go) (ichi and ten are contracted)

2.5 二点五 (ni ten go)

4.78 四点七八 (yon ten nana hachi)

11.36 十一点三六 (juu ichi ten san roku)

Days of the Month

The days of the month are in a group all their own. Some are similar to other numbers or counters, while some are completely unique. The final ka or nichi means "day." Please keep in mind that these are not ordinal numbers in the English sense, and cannot be used to express the order of other things in a series. Take note of each one; there are some surprises.

English	漢字 - Kanji	Romāji
The first day of the month	一日	tsuitachi (some people use ippi)
The second	二日	futsuka
The third	三日	mikka
4th	四日	yokka
5th	五日	itsuka
6th	六日	muika (some people use miuka)
7th	七日	nanoka
8th	八日	youka
9th	九日	kokonoka
10th	十日	touka
11th	十一日	juu ichi nichi
12th	十二日	juu ni nichi
13th	十三日	juu san nichi
14th	十四日	juu yokka
15th	十五日	juu go nichi
16th	十六日	juu roku nichi
17th	十七日	juu nana nichi (some people use juu shichi nichi)
18th	十八日	juu hachi nichi
19th	十九日	juu ku nichi
20th	二十日	hatsuka
21st	二十一日	ni juu ichi nichi
22nd	二十三日	ni juu ni nichi
23rd	二十四日	ni juu san nichi
24th	二十五日	ni juu yokka
25th	二十六日	ni juu go nichi
26th	二十七日	ni juu roku nichi
27th	二十八日	ni juu nana nichi (or ni juu shichi nichi)
28th	二十九日	ni juu hachi nichi
29th	三十日	ni juu ku nichi
30th	三十一日	san juu nichi
31st	二十一日	san juu ichi nichi

Months of the Year

Sadly, the ancient Japanese names for the months are no longer used except in poems and other special literature. In daily writing and conversation the number of the month with the Japanese for month (gatsu) is used instead:

English	漢字 - Kanji	Romāji
January	１月	ichi gatsu
February	２月	ni gatsu
March	３月	san gatsu
April	４月	shi gatsu (never yon gatsu)
May	５月	go gatsu
June	６月	roku gatsu
July	８月	shichi gatsu
August	９月	hachi gatsu
September	１０月	ku gatsu
October	１１月	juu gatsu
November	１２月	juu ichi gatsu
December	１月	juu ni gatsu

Years

Years are expressed in either 西暦 (seireki), the western reckoning, or 和暦 (wareki), which follows the Japanese eras of the reign of the emperors. In either reckoning, the word for “year” 年 (nen) follows the year. Years in seireki are expressed the same as any other number; there are no special abbreviations. This year, 2008, is 二千八年 (ni sen hachi nen); 1996 would be 千九百九十六年 (sen kyuu hyaku kyuu juu roku nen); 1872 is 千八百七十二年 (sen happyaku nana juu ni nen), and so on.

In the wareki reckoning, this year is the 20th year of the present emperor, and his era has been named Heisei. In Japanese it is called Heisei ni juu nen. If you were born in 1975, you were born in the 50th year of the Showa Era, or, in Japanese, Shouwa go juu nen. For year conversions see my Handy Tables of Japanese Years.

If you need to express B.C., use kigen zen before the number: 723 B.C. is kigen zen nana hyaku ni juu san nen.

Room Numbers & Floor Numbers

Room numbers are usually read one number at a time. Interestingly, zeroes are usually read maru, which means "circle":

English	漢字 - Kanji	Romāji
310	三一丸	san ichi maru
407	四一丸	yon maru nana
1227	一二二丸	ichi ni ni nana
1502	一五丸二	ichi go maru ni

The floors of a building use 階 (kai):

English	漢字 - Kanji	Romāji
first floor	一階	ikkai
second floor	二階	ni kai
third floor	三階	san gai
fourth floor	四階	yon kai
fifth floor	五階	go kai

Telephone Numbers

Telephone numbers are also often read one number at a time. A very clever invention the Japanese have, however, is saying no where hyphens usually are. This makes listening to a long number easier. For example, 067-892-7813 would be read: zero roku nana no hachi kyuu ni no nana hachi ichi san.

Flight Numbers

Flight numbers use 便 (bin):

English	漢字 - Kanji	Romāji
Flight 26	二十六便	ni juu roku bin
Flight 183	百八十三便	hyaku hachi juu san bin

Trains and buses use 合 (gou) after their numbers, not 便 (bin).

Counting

There is a set of what could be loosely called "ordinal numbers" which are sometimes used for counting up to ten items. Similarities will be found between these and the days of the months introduced above:

No. (English)	漢字 - Kanji	Romāji
1	一つ	hitotsu
2	二つ	futatsu
3	三つ	mittsu
4	四つ	yottsu
5	五つ	itsutsu
6	六つ	muttsu
7	七つ	nanatsu
8	八つ	yattsu
9	九つ	kokonotsu
10	-	tou

These are used mainly by small children to count things or say how old they are. Adults will sometimes use these in short requests or replies:

A: 予備の電池ある? (Yobi no denchi aru?) -> Are there any spare batteries?

B: はい、三つあるよ。(Hai. Mittsu aru yo.) -> Yes. There are three.

However, it will sometimes be preferable to use the correct counter when counting things, especially in formal settings. The counter for batteries and similar irregularly-shaped, relatively small objects is ko. Counters are used with the basic numbers which were introduced at the top of this page. Here is the previous conversation made a bit more formal:

A: Yobi no denchi arimasu ka? (Are there any spare batteries?)

B: Hai. San ko arimasu. (Yes. There are three.)

There are many of these counters — many more than are mentioned on this page. These should be considered the absolutely essential ones that you need to learn and master first. The more counters you memorize and use correctly, the more literate and fluent you will sound.

個 (ko)

個(ko) was just mentioned. It is used to count things like apples, oranges, blocks, boxes, and many other things which are pretty much the same size in all dimensions. People often use ko in place of other counters. If you use ko to count bananas instead of the technically correct hon, it's no big deal, but using it to count cars or animals would really show a lack of knowledge.

本 (hon)

Use 本 (hon) for relatively long and narrow things: pens, pencils, rulers, sticks, bottles, etc. Take note how the pronunciation changes according to the number:

No. (English)	漢字 - Kanji	Romāji
1	一本	ippon
2	二本	ni hon
3	三本	san bon
4	四本	yon hon
5	五本	go hon
6	六本	roppon
7	七本	nana hon
8	八本	happon
9	九本	kyuu hon
10	十本	juppon

Example:

僕は鉛筆二本持っているから、一本貸して上げる。 (Boku wa enpitsu ni hon motte iru kara, ippon kashite ageru.)  -> I have two pencils so I'll lend you one.

Note:

Note how the number of an item retains its counter even when the name of the item is known and omitted. Please keep in mind that this is a general guide and there will be people who use other expressions. For example, there are people who will say hachi hon instead of happon. This applies to everything on this page.

杯 (hai)

杯 (hai) is for cups or glasses filled with a drink: ippai, ni hai, san bai:

Example:

お茶二杯下さい。 (O-cha ni hai kudasai.) -> Two cups of tea, please.

冊 (satsu), 枚 (mai), 台 (dai)

For the number of books use 冊 (satsu): 一冊 issatsu, 二冊 ni satsu, 三冊 san satsu, etc.

For flat things like sheets of paper, photographs, and tiles use 枚 (mai): 一枚 ichi mai, 二枚 ni mai, 三枚 san mai, etc.

For cars, bikes, and other machines use 台 (dai): 一台 ichi dai, 二台 ni dai, 三台 san dai, etc.

Animals & People

Small animals up to dogs use 疋 (hiki): 一疋 ippiki, 二疋 ni hiki, 三疋 san biki, 四疋 yon hiki, 五疋 go hiki, etc.

Larger animals from sheep on up use 頭 (tou): 一頭 ittou, 二頭 ni tou, 三頭 san tou, etc.

Birds use 羽 (wa): 一羽 ichi wa, 二羽 ni wa, 三羽 san wa, etc.

Fish use 尾 (bi): 一尾 ichi bi, 二尾 ni bi, 三尾 san bi, etc.

Example:

私の従兄は犬三匹、猫八疋と二羽鳥五羽買っています。 (Watashi no itoko wa inu san biki, neko happiki to niwatori go wa o katte imasu.) -> My cousin has three dogs, eight cats, and five chickens.

For people use hitori for one person, futari for two people, and then the counter nin for three or more:

English	漢字 - Kanji	Romāji
1 person	一人	hitori
2 people	二人	futari
3 people	三人	san nin
7 people	七人	nana nin
12 people	十二人	juu ni nin
65 people	六十五人	roku juu go nin

Example:

二人の姐と三人の弟がいます。 (Futari no ane to san nin no otouto ga imasu.) -> I have two big sisters and three little brothers.

Rankings & Placings

Rankings within a group or placings for contest winners use 位 (i):

English	漢字 – Kanji	Romāji
first place	一位	ichi i
second place	二位	ni i
third place	三位	san i

Numbers in Succession

Use 番 (ban) to show the number of something in a succession:

English	漢字 – Kanji	Romāji
number one (or "the best")	一番	ichi ban
number two	二番	ni ban
number three	三番	san ban

Note:

番 (ban) is also sometimes used instead of 位 (i) to show rankings.

A Specific Number in a Series

To specifically point out the number of something in a series, add me:

English	漢字 – Kanji	Romāji
the second person	二人目	futari me
the third day	三日目	mikka me
the fifth machine	五台目	go dai me

Example:

妹は右から三番目です。 (Imouto wa migi kara san ban me desu.) -> My sister is the third one from the right.

Vague Numbers

English	漢字 – Kanji	Romāji
a few dogs	犬二、三匹	inu ni, san biki
4 or 5 students	四、五人の学生	shi, go nin no gakusei (not yon, go)
around 25 people	二十五人ぐらい	ni juu go nin gurai
50 or more	五十以上	go juu ijou
several years	数百羽の鳥	suu nen kan
hundreds of birds	数千リトル	suu hyaku wa no tori (or nan byaku wa no tori)
thousands of liters	犬二、三匹	suu sen litoru (or nan zen litoru)

Kaoko: Phew! That was a lot of effort ... I hope you have benefitted from this lesson of counting , and enjoyed it as well as to find it simple ^^ The one who wrote this is originally Tim-sensei from the Tim Werx website. I just edited it and added more pictures to make it more convincing . Later! I’ll post another lesson article about clocks and time !


Original Work: http://ww8.tiki.ne.jp/~tmath/language/numbers.htm