FOREIGN LANGUAGE JAPANESE

CHAPTER 8 – NUMBERS AND CALENDAR DATES

OBJECTIVES:
At the end of the chapter, the learner should be able to:

 Apply numbers in sentence construction and basic conversation

 Generate sentences suggesting days and dates

INTRODUCTION

When you first start learning Japanese, the number system can be quite complex. While basic
counting in Japanese is simple, there are several ways to count to ten. And counting objects can
become perplexing due to the dreaded "counters."

Learning to read dates is one of the most fundamental aspects of learning a new language, and it
is essential in everyday life. Dates are used when making appointments, purchasing tickets for a
specific day, asking for someone's birthday, and so on. It's not difficult to express the date in
Japanese. With a few exceptions, Japanese dates follow the counter system; English, on the other
hand, has different names for the months and days of the week.

NUMBERS

JAPANESE NUMBERS 1 TO 10

The Japanese number system has two sets of numbers: the Sino-Japanese numbers and the
Native Japanese numbers. The most common Japanese numbers are the Sino-Japanese
numbers. But you will often come across 1 – 10 in Native Japanese numbers.

SINO-JAPANESE NUMBERS KANJI NATIVE JAPANESE NUMBERS KANJI

1 いち (ichi) 一 ひとつ (hitotsu) 一つ
2 に (ni) 二 ふたつ (futatsu) 二つ
3 さん (san) 三 みっつ (mittsu) 三つ
4 し、よん (shi, yon) 四 よっつ (yottsu) 四つ
5 ご (go) 五 いつつ (itsutsu) 五つ
6 ろく (roku) 六 むっつ (muttsu) 六つ
7 しち、なな (shichi, nana) 七 ななつ (nanatsu) 七つ
8 はち (hachi) 八 やっつ (yattsu) 八つ
9 く、きゅう (ku, kyuu) 九 ここのつ (kokonotsu) 九つ
10 じゅう (juu) 十 とう (tou) 十

0 れい、ゼロ、マル (rei, zero, maru) 零

Native Japanese Numbers

Let’s check out the Native Japanese row first. You’ll only see this system used up to 10, so that
makes it easier. The other cool bonus of this counting system: no counters!
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I’ll cover counters in a moment, but this set of numbers is considered the universal counter. You
can use it to count everything except money, time, and people. So, if you forget the right counter,
use these numbers!
The tip to remembering these numbers is that they all end in つ (tsu) except for 10, which is と う
(tou). This also makes it easier when reading the kanji for these numbers. You can always tell
which counting system is being used by whether the kanji is followed by つ or not (except 10).

Sino-Japanese Numbers
Now, let’s look at the Sino-Japanese numbers. These are the Japanese numbers you’ll use most
often, and they combine with counters for counting objects. Once you memorize these 10, counting
to 100 is easy!
But take note: three numbers have two different readings: 4, 7, and 9.
The numbers 4 and 9 are considered unlucky in Japanese because し (shi) and く (ku) sound the
same as the words for death ( 死, shi) and agony ( 苦, ku). So, Japanese people avoid using those
readings whenever possible. Even though 7 is a lucky number, it’s reading しち (shichi) also has し
so it's more common to say なな (nana).

As for zero, the Japanese word is 零 (rei), but it's more common to say it like in English. ゼロ (zero) is
most often used, or ま る (maru) which means “circle” and is like saying “oh” in English instead of
zero.

JAPANESE NUMBERS 11 TO 100

Counting to 100 in Japanese is super easy once you learn the first 10, and it only uses one
system! In Japanese, once you get past 10, you count as if you’re adding. Here’s how that looks:
11 is 十一 (juuichi): 10 + 1 12 is 十二 (juuni): 10 + 2 and so on up to 19.
Once you get to twenty, it’s the same concept, but you start by counting the 10s:
20 is 二十 (nijuu): 2 10’s 21 is 二十一 (nijuuichi): 2 10's + 1 and so on, up to 99.
100 gets a new word: 百 (hyaku).

11-19 JAPANESE COUNTING NUMBERS

Hiragana English Phonetics

じゅういち eleven juu-ichi
じゅうに twelve juu-ni
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じゅうさん thirteen juu-san

じゅうよん fourteen juu-yon*
じゅうご fifteen juu-go
じゅうろく sixteen juu-roku
じゅうなな seventeen juu-nana*
じゅうはち eighteen juu-hachi
じゅうきゅう nineteen juu-kyu*

SIMPLE DOUBLE-DIGIT NUMBERS

Hiragana English Phonetics

にじゅう twenty ni-juu
さんじゅう thirty san-juu
よんじゅう forty yon-juu
ごじゅう fifty go-juu
ろくじゅう sixty roku-juu
ななじゅう seventy nana-juu
はちじゅう eighty hachi-juu
きゅうじゅう ninety kyu-juu
ひゃく one hundred hyaku

COMPLEX DOUBLE-DIGIT NUMBERS

Number Formation Hiragana Phonetics

23 two-ten-three にじゅうさん ni-juu-san
49 four-ten-nine よんじゅうきゅう yon-juu-kyu
58 five-ten-eight ごじゅうはち go-juu-hachi
97 nine-ten-seven きゅうじゅうなな kyu-juu-nana

JAPANESE CALENDAR DATES

How to say dates in Japanese is very simple. Dates in Japanese writing start with the year, then
the month, and finally the day. The only exception is when there’s a particular instruction to write it
a different way, such as on an entry form.

DAYS OF THE WEEK IN JAPANESE

Days of the week in Japanese are easy to remember.

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Japanese Days of the Week

Each day ends with the word 曜日 (youbi), which means "day of the week".

The only difference lies in the first character.

 月 (getsu) means moon, so Monday is the day of moon.

 火 (ka) means fire, so Tuesday is the day of fire.
 水 (sui) means water, so Wednesday is the day of water.
 木 (moku) means wood, so Thursday is the day of wood.
 金 (kin) means gold, so Friday is the day of gold.
 土 (do) means earth, so Saturday is the day of earth.
 日 (nichi) means sun, so Sunday is the day of sun.

In Japan, you will most likely see that only the first character is used to represent the days of the
week. Like for example in newspapers or the business hours of shops, the Japanese usually use
(月), (火), (水), (木), (金), (土) and (日).

MONTHS IN JAPANESE

In Japanese, months of the year are also quite straight forward. The month 月 here is read as gatsu
(not getsu) when it is used for months of the year.

Simply add the Japanese numbers of 1 to 12 in front of 月 to form the months from January to
December respectively.
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Japanese Months of the Year

Be careful for the pronunciations for April, July and September. While normally yon (4), nana (7)
and kyuu (9) are used in Japanese numbers, shi (4), shichi (7) and ku (9) are used when reading
these 3 months. Foreigners tend to make mistakes when reading these.

DAYS OF THE MONTH IN JAPANESE

There are more to remember when it comes to the Japanese days of the month. Firstly, there are
special readings from the 1st to 10th days. Pay attention to the difference between the 4th and the
8th. The 4th is read as よっか (yokka) using sokuon, whereas the 8th is read as ようか (youka) using
chouon (long vowels). Secondly, take note of the special reading for the 20th, はつか (hatsuka).

For the other days ended in four (14th and 24th), you have to read them as じゅうよっか (juuyokka)
and に じ ゅ う よ っ か (nijuuyokka) respectively. For the rest of the days, add the respective Japanese
numbers to 日 (nichi) to get the readings.

You will need to memorize the 1st to 10th. Mostly from 1 to 10. But 11 and up are fairly easy.

From 11 and up, most follow this formula:

 [number in japanese] + [nichi]
 11 is juuichi + nichi = juuichi ichi
 12 is juuni + nichi = juuni nichi
 25 is nijuugo + nichi = nijuugo nichi
The only ones that don’t follow the formula and need memorization are:
 14 – juuyokka
 20 – hatsuka
 24 – nijuuyokka
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Japanese Days of the Month

DIFFERENT RELATIVE TIME PERIODS

In addition, there are some terms like yesterday, today, tomorrow, last year, this year, next year,
etc, that you can use to address different relative time periods.
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Japanese Different Relative Time Periods

The table above shows the different relative time periods commonly used. Take note that there are
two readings for some time periods such as tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, etc. The second
readings are usually used for formal occasions.

ACTIVITY #9
Instructions:
 Study the number 1 to 15
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 Individually, you will correctly pronounce or produce the appropriate sound for each
number.
 Also pronounce the English translation of the numbers.
 Repeat your numbers pronunciation twice (2x)