Let’ talk about numbers in Japanese

For today’s post, we will talk about numbers so that we could start learning the date and months, how to read time and many more. But I will not include the counters used when counting objects, animals, and others. Counters will be explained in future blogs.

In Japan, there are two ways on how to read numbers, the native Japanese reading, and the Chinese counting system. I will be using Hiragana/Katakana instead of the Kanji equivalent of numbers as I haven’t include Kanji lessons in any of my previous blogs. As I have said before, I will post from basic up to the advanced topic.

Native Japanese Numbers:

Number	Hiragana	Romaji
1	ひとつ	Hitotsu
2	ふたつ	Futatsu
3	みっつ	Mittsu
4	よっつ / よん	Yottsu / Yon
5	いつつ	Itsutsu
6	むっつ	Muttsu
7	ななつ	Nanatsu
8	やっつ	Yattsu
9	ここのつ	Kokonotsu
10	とお	Too

Chinese reading:

Number	Katakana	Romaji
1	イチ	Ichi
2	二	Ni
3	サン	San
4	シ	Shi
5	ゴ	Go
6	ロク	Roku
7	シチ	Shichi
8	ハチ	Hachi
9	キュウ / ク	Kyuu / Ku
10	ジュウ	Juu

The number 0 is read in Native reading as れい (rei). But the common way to read the number 0 is the adopted English wordゼロ(zero).

Number	Katakana	Romaji
100	ヒャク	Hyaku
1,000	セン	Sen
10,000	マン	Man
100,000,000	オク	Oku

Examples of counting numbers after 10. I will be using the common reading of Japanese numbers or the Chinese number because the native numbers are not quite hard to remember, and it's not used every day.

11 à 10 + 1

Read: ジュ　+　イチ　＝　ジュウイチ

20 à 2 x 10

Read: 二　ｘ　ジュウ　＝　ニジュウ

28 à 2 and 10 and 8

Read: 二　and　ジュウ　and　ハチ　＝　ニジュウハチ

49 à 4 and 10 and 9

Read: ヨン　and　ジュウ　and　キュウ　＝　ヨンジュウキュウ

173 à 100 and 7 and 10 and 3

Read: ヒャク　and　ナナ　and　ジュウ　and　サン　＝　ヒャクナナジュウサン

526 à 5 and 100 and 2 and 10 and 6

Read: ゴ　and　ヒャク　and　二　and　ジュウ　and　ロク　＝　ゴヒャク二ジュウロク

When counting hundreds in Japanese, the ヒャク is change to ビャクand ピャク when reading it. The change in reading is sometimes in 3, 6 and 8. This is same with counting thousands. The セン is read as ゼン but only for 3. And the reading of 8000 is not ハチセン but ハッセン.

Number	Katakana	Romaji
200	ニヒャク	Nihyaku
300	サンビャク	Sanbyaku
400	ヨンヒャク	Yonhyaku
500	ゴヒャク	Gohyaku
600	ロッピャク	Roppyaku
700	ナナヒャク	Nanahyaku
800	ハッピャク	Happyaku
900	キュウヒャク	Kyuuhyaku
2000	ニセン	Nisen
3000	サンゼン	Sanzen
4000	ヨンセン	Yonsen
5000	ゴセン	Gosen
6000	ロクセン	Rokusen
7000	ナナセン	Nanasen
8000	ハッセン	Hassen
9000	キュウセン	Kyuusen