Japanese Numbers 1 to 10 and 1 to 100: Both Counting Systems

Japanese numbers 1 to 10: both systems

Which one do I use?

• Sino-Japanese (ichi, ni, san...) for everything mathematical and everything with a counter: phone numbers, prices, ages, dates, times, floors, and counting people, animals, flat things, long things and so on. This is the set you use ninety percent of the time.
• Native Japanese (hitotsu, futatsu, mittsu...) for counting objects without a specific counter, from one to ten only. It is the "generic counter" and it is what you use to order "three of those" when you do not know the right counter word. After ten, there is no native form; everything switches to Sino-Japanese.

So to order three coffees: コーヒーを三つください (koohii wo mittsu kudasai). To say your phone number: Sino-Japanese digits. To say you are 30: Sino-Japanese, 三十歳 (sanjussai).

Pronunciation of Japanese numbers

Japanese is not tonal and has no stress accent like English. Every syllable gets roughly equal length, and the main things to control are vowel length and the small tsu.

• ichi (EE-chee): two even beats. The "ch" is as in "cheese".
• ni (nee): one beat. Not "nye".
• san (sahn): the n is a full syllable-final nasal, held for a beat. "sa-n".
• shi (shee) / yon (yohn): shi rhymes with "she". Yon rhymes with "own" with a y in front.
• go (goh): short o, not "gow".
• roku (ROH-koo): the Japanese r is a tap between English r, l and d. The final u is light.
• shichi (shee-CHEE) / nana (NAH-nah): shichi has two "ch"-adjacent sounds and is hard to say fast, which is one reason nana is preferred.
• hachi (HAH-chee): easy.
• kyuu (kyoo) / ku (koo): kyuu has a long vowel; hold the "oo" for two beats. "Kyu" said short is a different word.
• juu (joo): long vowel, two beats. "Ju" said short means something else. This one matters because 10, 20, 30 all contain it.
• hitotsu, futatsu, mittsu (MEET-tsoo): the doubled tt in mittsu, yottsu, muttsu, yattsu is a small pause before the tsu, like the gap in "hot tea". The "tsu" itself is one sound, as at the end of "cats".

The two long vowels, juu and kyuu, are the ones that trip everyone up. Say them slowly and count two beats.

Why 4, 7 and 9 have two readings

Four is shi or yon, seven is shichi or nana, nine is kyuu or ku. The alternatives exist for a reason.

Shi (四, four) sounds identical to shi (死, death). Japanese speakers avoid it wherever possible. Hospitals often have no room 4 and no fourth floor; gift sets never come in fours. So in almost every real situation, four is yon: yon-ji (four o'clock), yon-nin (four people), yon-hyaku (four hundred), ni-juu-yon (twenty-four). Shi survives only in fixed sequences: counting up "ichi, ni, san, shi" in a rhythm, and in a few compounds like shi-gatsu (April).

Ku (九, nine) sounds like ku (苦, suffering). So nine is usually kyuu: kyuu-ji (nine o'clock), kyuu-nin (nine people), kyuu-hyaku (nine hundred). Ku survives in ku-gatsu (September) and a few set phrases.

Shichi (七, seven) has no unlucky meaning, but it sounds too close to ichi (one) and shi (four) over a phone line or in a noisy room, so nana is used to avoid confusion: nana-ji (seven o'clock) and shichi-ji are both heard, but nana-hyaku (seven hundred) and nana-juu (seventy) are standard.

The practical rule: when in doubt, say yon, nana and kyuu. You will never be wrong, and you will never accidentally wish death on someone's gift.

Japanese numbers 11 to 99: the pattern

This is the good news. From 11 to 99 there are no new words. Japanese builds numbers like a calculator reads them: tens digit + juu + units digit.

• 11 = juu-ichi (ten-one)
• 12 = juu-ni
• 13 = juu-san
• 14 = juu-yon
• 15 = juu-go
• 16 = juu-roku
• 17 = juu-nana
• 18 = juu-hachi
• 19 = juu-kyuu
• 20 = ni-juu (two-ten)
• 21 = ni-juu-ichi (two-ten-one)
• 30 = san-juu
• 40 = yon-juu
• 50 = go-juu
• 60 = roku-juu
• 70 = nana-juu
• 80 = hachi-juu
• 90 = kyuu-juu
• 99 = kyuu-juu-kyuu

There is no "eleven", no "twelve", no "twenty" as separate words. Once you know one to ten and the word juu, you know one to ninety-nine. It is one of the few places where Japanese is easier than English.

Hundreds and thousands: the sound changes

100 is hyaku (百), and the hundreds follow the same pattern as the tens, with three sound changes that you simply have to memorise:

1,000 is sen (千), with two changes:

Combining: 1,234 is sen ni-hyaku san-juu yon. 8,765 is has-sen nana-hyaku roku-juu go. You just read the digits with their place words, skipping any zero.

Ten thousand and up: the man system

Here is the part that breaks English speakers. English groups large numbers in thousands (thousand, million, billion). Japanese groups them in ten-thousands.

10,000 is ichi-man (一万), and man is a new unit, the way "thousand" is a unit in English. So:

• 10,000 = ichi-man (one ten-thousand)
• 20,000 = ni-man
• 100,000 = juu-man (ten ten-thousands)
• 1,000,000 = hyaku-man (a hundred ten-thousands)
• 10,000,000 = sen-man (a thousand ten-thousands)
• 100,000,000 = ichi-oku (億), the next unit
• 1,000,000,000,000 = it-chou (兆)

So "one million" is not a word in Japanese; it is "a hundred ten-thousands", hyaku-man. A Tokyo rent of 150,000 yen is juu-go-man en (fifteen ten-thousands yen). A car costing 3,000,000 yen is san-byaku-man en. The trick is to count digits from the right in groups of four, not three: 3,000,000 is 300|0000, three hundred man.

Note that unlike hyaku and sen, man does take ichi: it is ichi-man, not "man".

Counters: why "three" changes shape

Japanese attaches a counter word to numbers when counting specific things, and the number and counter merge, sometimes changing sound. The native numbers (hitotsu, futatsu) are the general-purpose counter for objects up to ten; for everything else, these are the counters you will meet first.

The sound changes follow a pattern once you have seen enough of them: 1, 6, 8 and 10 tend to shorten and double the next consonant (ip-pon, rop-pon, hap-pon, jup-pon), and 3 tends to voice it (san-bon). If you do not know the counter, use the native numbers or just say the Sino-Japanese number and point; you will be understood.

Numbers in real life

Prices

• いくらですか。(Ikura desu ka.) How much is it?
• 千二百円です。(Sen ni-hyaku en desu.) It's 1,200 yen.
• 三万五千円です。(San-man go-sen en desu.) It's 35,000 yen.
• Japanese prices are read in full. There is no "twelve hundred"; 1,200 is sen ni-hyaku.

Age

• 何歳ですか。(Nan-sai desu ka.) How old are you? Polite: おいくつですか (Oikutsu desu ka).
• 二十五歳です。(Ni-juu-go-sai desu.) I'm 25.
• 二十歳です。(Hatachi desu.) I'm 20. Twenty is irregular and everyone knows it, because it is the age of adulthood.

Time

• 何時ですか。(Nan-ji desu ka.) What time is it?
• 三時です。(San-ji desu.) It's three o'clock.
• 四時半です。(Yo-ji han desu.) It's half past four. Note yo-ji, not yon-ji.
• 七時十五分です。(Shichi-ji juu-go-fun desu.) It's 7:15.
• 九時です。(Ku-ji desu.) It's nine o'clock. Note ku-ji, not kyuu-ji.

Dates

• 一月 (ichi-gatsu, January) to 十二月 (juu-ni-gatsu, December); note shi-gatsu (April), shichi-gatsu (July) and ku-gatsu (September) keep the old readings.
• Days of the month are irregular from 1 to 10 (tsuitachi, futsuka, mikka, yokka, itsuka, muika, nanoka, youka, kokonoka, tooka) and then mostly regular (juu-ichi-nichi), with 14 (juu-yokka), 20 (hatsuka) and 24 (ni-juu-yokka) as exceptions.

Phone numbers

Read digit by digit with no (の) between the groups: 090-1234-5678 is zero kyuu zero no ichi ni san yon no go roku nana hachi. Zero is zero or rei; in phone numbers, zero is standard. Four is yon, seven is nana, nine is kyuu, always, on the phone.

Floors, rooms and platforms

• 三階 (san-gai), third floor. 一階 (ik-kai), ground floor: Japan counts the ground floor as the first floor, like the US.
• 四〇一号室 (yon-maru-ichi-gou-shitsu), room 401. Maru (circle) is used for zero in room numbers and codes.
• 二番線 (ni-ban-sen), platform 2.

Common mistakes with Japanese numbers

• Saying shi for four in daily life. Use yon. Shi is for counting rhythms and April.
• Using native numbers past ten. Hitotsu to too, then Sino-Japanese only.
• Shortening juu and kyuu. Both have long vowels. "Ju-ni" for twelve sounds wrong; it is "juu-ni".
• Saying ichi-hyaku or ichi-sen. Just hyaku, just sen. But ichi-man does take ichi.
• Grouping big numbers in thousands. Count in groups of four from the right. A million is hyaku-man.
• Forgetting the sound changes. San-byaku, rop-pyaku, hap-pyaku, san-zen, has-sen. There is no way round memorising these five.
• Saying yon-ji for four o'clock. It is yo-ji. And ku-ji, not kyuu-ji, for nine o'clock.
• Skipping the counter entirely and hoping. Use hitotsu, futatsu, mittsu for things; use nin for people. Those two cover most emergencies.
• Giving four of anything as a gift. Not a language mistake, but a cultural one.

How to actually get fast at Japanese numbers

Reading this page lets you understand a price. Handing over the right coins while a cashier waits is a different skill, and it is the only one that matters.

1. Count out loud, in patterns. One to ten in both systems. By tens to a hundred. Then 11 to 99 in order. Then backwards. On the train, every day for a week.
2. Read every number you see as Japanese. Prices, clocks, station platforms, page numbers, battery percentage. Out loud, quietly.
3. Say your own numbers. Age (with sai), phone number (with no), birth year, apartment number. Ten times each, until they are one breath.
4. Drill the big ones. Rent, salary, the price of a car. Ichi-man, juu-man, hyaku-man. Say random five- and six-digit numbers until the four-digit grouping feels normal.
5. Order things. Mittsu kudasai. Biiru ni-hai. Kippu san-mai. Practise the counters you will actually use before the ones in the textbook.
6. Then say them under pressure. SPAIKING's AI speaking partner will quote you prices, ask your age and phone number, and make you order three of something with the right counter, correcting the short juu and the "yon-ji" the moment you say them. Numbers only become automatic when something is waiting for your answer.