Japanese numerals

The are numerals that are used in Japanese. In writing, they are the same as the Chinese numerals, and large numbers follow the Chinese style of grouping by 10,000. Two pronunciations are used: the Sino-Japanese () readings of the Chinese characters and the Japanese (native words, readings).

Numbering in Japanese

There are two ways of writing the numbers in Japanese: in Arabic numerals (1, 2, 3) or in Chinese numerals (, , ). The Arabic numerals are more often used in horizontal writing, and the Chinese numerals are more common in vertical writing.

Most numbers have two readings, one derived from Chinese used for cardinal numbers ( reading) and a native Japanese reading ( reading) used somewhat less formally for numbers up to 10. In some cases (listed below) the Japanese reading is generally preferred for all uses. Archaic readings are marked with †.

{| class="wikitable nounderlines"

! Number

! Character

! reading

! Preferred reading

| align="right" | 0

| /

| (loanword, )

| align="right" | 1

| align="right" | 2

| align="right" | 3

| align="right" | 4

| ,

| align="right" | 5

| align="right" | 6

| align="right" | 7

| align="right" | 8

| align="right" | 9

| ,

| align="right" | 10

| align="right" | 20

| †

| align="right" | 30

| †

| align="right" | 40

| †

| align="right" | 50

| †

| align="right" | 60

| †

| align="right" | 70

| †

| align="right" | 80

| †

| align="right" | 90

| †

| align="right" | 100

| †

| align="right" | 500

| †

| align="right" | 800

| †

| align="right" | 1,000

| †

| align="right" | 10,000

| †

| align="right" | 100,000,000

|—

| align="right" | 1,000,000,000,000

|—

| align="right" | 10,000,000,000,000,000

|—

| align="right" | 100,000,000,000,000,000,000

|—

| align="right" | 1024

|—

| align="right" | 1028

|—

| align="right" | 1032

|—

| align="right" | 1036

|—

| align="right" | 1040

|—

| align="right" | 1044

|—

| align="right" | 1048

|—

<nowiki>*</nowiki> The special reading is also found. It may be optionally used when reading individual digits of a number one after another, instead of as a full number. A popular example is the famous 109 store in Shibuya, Tokyo which is read as (Kanji: ). (It can also be read as 'ten-nine'—pronounced —which is a pun on the name of the Tokyo department store which owns the building.) This usage of for numerical 0 is similar to reading numeral 0 in English as oh. However, as a number, it is only written as 0 or . Additionally, two and five are pronounced with a long vowel in phone numbers (i.e. and ). Numbers after are rarely used. They are presented here nonetheless.

As noted above, (4) and (7) are preferred to and . It is purported that this is because is also the reading of the word , which makes it an unlucky reading (see tetraphobia); while may sound too similar to (1), or (8). However, in quite a number of established words and phrases, and are preferred; additionally, when counting (as in ""), and may be preferred.

The number 9 is also considered unlucky; when pronounced , it is a homophone for . The number 13 is sometimes considered unlucky, though this is a carryover from Western tradition. In contrast, 7 and sometimes 8 are considered lucky in Japanese.

In modern Japanese, cardinal numbers except 4 and 7 are generally given the readings. Alternate readings are used in month names, day-of-month names, and fixed phrases; for instance, April, July, and September are called (4th month), (7th month), and (9th month) respectively (for further detail see Japanese counter word#Exceptions). The readings are also used when shouting out headcounts (e.g. ).

Larger numbers are made by combining these elements:

Tens from 20 to 90 are "(digit)" as in to .
Hundreds from 200 to 900 are "(digit)".
Thousands from 2000 to 9000 are "(digit)".

Starting at a , numbers begin with if no digit would otherwise precede. That is, 100 is just , and 1000 is just , but 10000 is , not just *. (This differs from Chinese, where numbers begin with if no digit would otherwise precede starting at 100.) And, if directly precedes the name of powers of myriad, is normally attached before , which yields . That is, 10,000,000 (parsed as 1000,0000) is normally read as . But if does not directly precede the name of powers of myriad, attaching is optional. That is, 15,000,000 (1500,0000) is read as or , just as 1500 is read as or .

There are some phonetic modifications to larger numbers involving voicing or gemination of certain consonants, as typically occurs in Japanese (i.e. ): e.g. "six" and "hundred" yield "six hundred".

{| class="wikitable"

! × !! 1 !! 2 !! 3 !! 4 !! 5 !! 6 !! 7 !! 8 !! 9 !! 10 !! 100 !! 1000

| align="right" | 100

| style="background: yellow" |

|—

| align="right" | 1,000

| style="background: yellow" |

| —

| align="right" | 10

| style="background: yellow" |

| style="background: yellow" | *

| align="right" | 10

| style="background: yellow" |

| style="background: yellow" | *

| style="background: yellow" | **

<nowiki>*</nowiki> This also applies to multiples of 10. Change ending to or .

<nowiki>**</nowiki> This also applies to multiples of 100. Change ending to .

In numbers above 10, elements are combined from largest to smallest, and zeros are implied. Japanese numerals are multiplicative additive rather than positional; to write the number 20 you get the character for and then the character for to get two tens or .

{| class="wikitable"

! Number !! Character !! Reading

!Basic Meaning

| align="right" | 11 || ||

|Ten and One

| align="right" | 17 || ||

|Ten and Seven

| align="right" | 151 || ||

|Hundred, Five Tens and One

| align="right" | 302 || ||

|Three Hundreds and Two

| align="right" | 469 || ||

|Four Hundreds, Six Tens and Nine

| align="right" | 2025 || ||

|Two Thousands, Two Tens and Five

Strings of digits and decimal numbers

The above digits from 1 to 9 are used primarily in isolation. Strings of digits make use of slightly different readings, with lengthened vowels, for 2 (nī) and 5 (gō), and less frequently, 4 (shī) and 9 (kū). This is because when digits are enumerated, if possible, they must be so in groups of two, each of which must consist of exactly four morae, which necessitates the lengthening of normally unimoraic digits such as ni, go, shi and ku. For example, such string as 54262 is pronounced gō-yon nī-roku ni, with the first two groups being quadrimoraic. The accent is placed on the penultimate mora of each group if possible, hence .

This rule also applies to the last digit of the integer part and all the digits of the decimal part of a decimal number. These numbers' common forms can be changed to a higher value by adding strokes (1 and 2 were explained above, while 3 can be changed to 5, and 10 to 1000). In some cases, the digit 1 is explicitly written like for 110, as opposed to in common writing.

Formal numbers:

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center"

! rowspan="2" | Number

! rowspan="2" | Common

! colspan="2" | Formal

! In use !! Obsolete

| align="right" | 1 || || ||

| align="right" | 2 || || ||

| align="right" | 3 || || ||

| align="right" | 4 || || ||

| align="right" | 5 || || ||

| align="right" | 6 || || ||

| align="right" | 7 || || || ,

| align="right" | 8 || || ||

| align="right" | 9 || || ||

| align="right" | 10 || || ||

| align="right" | 100 || || ||

| align="right" | 1000 || || || ,

| align="right" | 10000 || || , ||

The four current banknotes of the Japanese yen, 1000-yen, 2000-yen, 5000-yen, and 10000-yen, have formal numbers , , , and , respectively.

Old Japanese

Old Japanese shares some vocabulary with later periods, but there are also unique number terms over 10 which are not used any more, aside from being parts of specific lexemes.

Notes:

The transcription is based on the phoneme and is not phonetic. See Old Japanese for further information.
See for information on subscript notation.

{| class="wikitable"

! Number

! Reading

! Examples

! Notes

| align="right" | 1

| wiktionary:一#Noun 2|

| (1 day), (1 year)

| align="right" | 2

| wiktionary:二#Noun 2|

| (2 nights)

| align="right" | 3

| wiktionary:三#Noun 2|

| (30)

| align="right" | 4

| wiktionary:四#Noun 2|

| (40), (4 people)

| align="right" | 5

| wiktionary:五#Noun 2|

| (5 years)

| align="right" | 6

| wiktionary:六#Noun 2|

| (6 claws)

| align="right" | 7

| wiktionary:七#Noun|

| (many rapids)

| Often used to mean many.

| align="right" | 8

| wiktionary:八#Noun 2|

| (many clouds)

| Often used to mean many.

| align="right" | 9

| wiktionary:九#Noun 2|

| (9 nobles / gods)

| align="right" | 10

| wiktionary:十#Noun 2| / wiktionary:十#Noun 3|

| (10 days)

| align="right" | 10

| wiktionary:十#Noun|

| (30), (40), (60), (80)

| Found only in compound words; not used alone.

| align="right" | 20

| wiktionary:二十#Noun|

| (20), (20 people), (20 years)

| align="right" | 50

| wiktionary:五十|

| (50 days)

| align="right" | 100

| wiktionary:百#Noun 2|

| (500), (500 years), (500 nights), (800), (300), (600), (900)

| Used for multiple hundreds in compound numerals. Often used to mean many.

| align="right" | 100

| wiktionary:百#Noun 3|

| (many days)

| Used for non-multiple hundred and for the number "100" by itself. Often used to mean many.

| align="right" | 1000

| wiktionary:千#Noun|

| (1000 years, many years)

| Often used to mean many.

| align="right" | 10000

| wiktionary:万#Noun|

| (8000000, myriad)

| Often used to mean many.

Hand counting

Japanese uses separate systems for counting for oneself and for displaying numbers to others, which both proceed up to ten. For counting, one begins with the palm open, then counts up to five by curling up (folding down) the fingers, starting from the thumb – thus one has just the thumb down (and others extended), while four has only the little finger extended, and five has a fist. One then counts up to ten by proceeding in the reverse order, extending the fingers, starting at the little finger – thus six is the same as four, seven the same as three, and so forth, with ten ending with the palm open. While this introduces ambiguity, it is not used to present to others, so this is generally not a problem. When displaying for others, one starts with the hand closed, and extends fingers, starting with the index, going to the little finger, then ending with the thumb, as in the United States. For numbers above five, one uses an open hand (indicating five) and places the appropriate number of fingers from the other hand against the palm (palms facing each other) – so six has the index finger against the palm, and so forth. To display ten, one presents both hands open and palm outwards.

Digits in written words

Since the adoption of Arabic numerals, it has become more and more common for numbers to be written using them. Counters and ordinal numbers are typically written in Arabic numbers, such as , , , etc., although , and are also acceptable to write (albeit less common). However, numbers that are part of lexemes are typically written in kanji. For example, the term translates into "800 store" and uses the Old Japanese pronunciation for 800, . The notorious Japanese organized crime syndicate, the yakuza, can be written (or 893), a hand in that is worth 0 points, indicating that yakuza are "worthless persons" or "gambling persons".

References

External links

Ancient Japanese number system
English exercises for learning Japanese numerals
Audio to learn the pronunciation for Japanese numbers
Convert kanji numerals to arabic numerals (sci.lang.Japan FAQ page)
Convert arabic numerals to kanji numerals (sci.lang.Japan FAQ page)

Numbering in Japanese

Strings of digits and decimal numbers

Old Japanese

Hand counting

Digits in written words

See also

References

External links