How to write and pronounce numbers in Japanese

In Japan, two systems are used for numerical writing: Arabic numerals (1, 2, 3) and Chinese numerals (one, two, three); usually Arabic numerals are used in horizontal writing, and Chinese numerals are Used in straight writing. In addition, some numbers in Japanese have two pronunciations.

Numerical Kanji priority pronunciation phonetic reading

0 Zero or 〇zero れい/ rei (none) [1]

1 一ichi いち/ ichiひと(つ) / hito(tsu)

2 二ni に/niorじ/ji ふた(つ) / futa(tsu)

3 三san さん/ san み(っつ) / mi(ttsu)

4 四yon し/ shi よ(っつ) / yo(ttsu)

5 五GO ご/ go いつ(つ) / itsu (tsu)

6 六roku ろく/ roku む(っつ) / mu(ttsu)

7 七nana しち/ shichi なな(つ) / nana(tsu)

8 八hachi はち/ hachi や(っつ) / ya(ttsu)

9 九kyū きゅう/kyū or く/ku ここの(つ) / kokono(tsu)

10 十jū じゅう/ jū とお/ tō

20 十jū にじゅう/ nijū はた(ち) / hata(chi)

100 百hyaku ひゃく/ hyaku (もも/ momo)

1,000 thousand sen せん/ sen (ち/ chi)

10,000 thousand man まん/ man (よろず/ yorozu)

100,000,000 billion oku おく/ oku -

1,000,000,000,000 mega chō ちょう/ chō -

↑ "zero "The word itself is not readable, but sometimes the number "0" is pronounced "まる(maru)" in Japanese, but this can only be used when pronouncing a series of individual digits (such as a phone number) rather than a numerical value. Kind of reading method. In addition, this pronunciation is derived from the pronunciation of "maru", "円" and "まる (maru)" in Japanese Kanji, and in spoken English, the number "0" is sometimes pronounced as the English letter "O" (sound "oh" ")'s situation is similar.

Similar to the situation with Chinese numbers, both 4 and 9 are considered unlucky numbers in Japanese numbers, because in Japanese pronunciation "four" is pronounced as "し(shi)" and "death" The word "九" has the same pronunciation as "く(ku)" and the word "ku" has the same pronunciation. In addition, some Japanese are also superstitious about "Friday the 13th" which is taboo in Western tradition and believe that the number 13 is unlucky.

In modern Japanese, the training of Japanese numbers is only used to read dates and individual numbers.

As for Japanese numbers, the way to express values ??above ten is roughly the same as Chinese numbers. However, in Japanese training and reading, the pronunciation of some values ??has changed, such as ten between thirty and ninety. Among multiples, the pronunciation of "十" in "じゅう(jū)" is pronounced as "そ(so)" in the training reading, but these changes are not commonly used in modern Japanese.

Numerical Chinese character pronunciation training

30 Thirty さんじゅう(sanjū) みそ(miso)

40 Forty よんじゅう(yonjū) or しじゅう( shijū) よそ(yoso)

50 十ごじゅう(gojū) いそ(iso)

60 六十ろくじゅう(rokujū) むそ(muso)

70 七十しちじゅう(shichijū) ななそ(nanaso)

80 八十はちじゅう(hachijū) やそ(yoso)

90 九十きゅうじゅう(kyujū ) ここのそ(kokonoso)

[edit] Large number system

For numbers larger than a thousand, Japanese numbers completely adopt the traditional Chinese "billions, trillions, Beijing, Gai, The ten characters “Zi, Rang, Gou, Jian, Zheng and Zai” represent the “Wan Jin Number”.

Numerical value 104 108 1012 1016 1020 1024 1028 1032 1036 1040 1044 1048 1052 1056 1060 1064 1068

Chinese characters Trillion Jinggai Zixinggou Stream is carrying the Ganges Shah monk Nayuta is an incredible and infinite number

Katakana まんおくちょけい or きょうがいしじょこかんせいさいごくごがしゃあそぎなゆたふかしぎむりょたいす

Japanese Romaji man oku chō kei or kyō gai shi jō kō kan sei sai goku gōgasha asōgi nayuta fukashigi muryōtaisū

But in Japanese, Arabic numerals and Chinese characters are sometimes combined to express a numerical value. According to Western convention, every three digits are used A group is separated by commas, so the Arabic numeral part must be less than 10,000 (for example, 25,000,000 is sometimes expressed as "25 million" in Japanese, but like 500,000,000 The number must be expressed as "500 million" instead of "500 million").

It is worth noting that when writing values ??other than "0" in Japanese in Chinese characters, all "zeros" must be omitted. For example, 302 is written as "three hundred and two" in Chinese numerals, but must be omitted as "three hundred and two" in Japanese ("three hundred and two" usually refers to the value "320" in Chinese).

[edit] Decimal system

In traditional Japanese, there are two systems for expressing decimals. They are almost no longer used in most situations today, but they are still used in some cases. It is used, for example, to indicate a baseball player's batting average and fielding average, a sports team's winning percentage, or to indicate a discount on a product's price.

The following is one of the systems for representing decimals:

Numerical value 10-1 10-2 10-3 10-4 10-5

Chinese characters centimeters Mooshi suddenly

Hiragana ぶりんもしこつ

Japanese Romaji bu rin mō shi kotsu

This system is derived from Japanese weights and measures, in which "cent", "centi", "mao", etc. were originally divided units of the Japanese length unit "shaku".

Another system for expressing decimals is to reduce the numerical value of the units in the above system (such as "cent" changing from one-tenth to one-hundredth, and so on), and one-tenth is Expressed by "cut".

Numerical value 10-1 10-2 10-3 10-4 10-5

Kanji divided centimeters

Hiragana わりぶりんもし

Japanese Romaji wari bu rin mō shi

This system is often used to indicate prices (such as discounts), for example:

一分五狠目き(ichi- wari go-bu biki) means "a 15% discount"

Daritsu san-wari hachi-bu kyū-rin (daritsu san-wari hachi-bu kyū-rin) means "a batting average of 0.389"

Modern Japanese usually uses decimal points to express decimals and rarely uses the above system. It also uses Chinese characters for straight writing and Arabic numerals for horizontal writing. For example, "42.195" is written as "forty-two? one" in Japanese. Ninth Five-Year Plan".

[edit] Uppercase numbers

Also inherited from Chinese numbers, Japan has a formal number system that is slightly different from Chinese uppercase numbers called "大字 (だいじ)", usually used Prevent numbers from being altered in legal and financial documents. After the original Chinese capital numbers such as "一, 二, 神, 四, 五, LU, 撒, 八, 九, 十" were introduced to Japan, several of them, which had little use, have now been abolished. The current capital numbers in Japan are only "山(一),弐(二),神(三),十(十),万(万)", because these five numbers are very easy to modify compared to other numbers that are not easy to modify. Change it into other numbers (such as "one" can be changed into "two", and "one, two, three, ten, ten thousand" can be changed into "five"), so the capitalization of these five numbers is still in use today .

Numerical values ??are in lowercase and uppercase

Currently used and abolished

1 一一一

2 二弴二

3 Three Shenshen

4 Four Fours

5 Five Fives

6 Six Lu

7 Seven Sevens (lacquer)

8 Eight Eight

9 Nine Jiu

10 Ten Shishi

100 Hundred Hundred

1000 Thousand Qian (Thousand)

100 million 100 million