Japanese numerals: Encyclopedia II - Japanese numerals - Basic numbering in Japanese

Japanese numerals - Basic numbering in Japanese

There are two ways of writing the numbers in Japanese, in Arabic numerals (1, 2, 3) or in Chinese numerals (一, ニ, 三). The Arabic numerals are more often used in horizontal writing, and the Chinese numerals are more common in vertical writing.

(Some numbers have multiple names.)

* In modern Japanese, yaoyorozu means something more like "myriad", and is mainly found in set phrases. Historically, however, it simply meant 8 million.

The numbers 4 and 9 are considered unlucky in Japanese: 4, pronounced shi, is a homophone for "death"; 9, when pronounced ku, is a homophone for "suffering." The number 13 is also considered unlucky, though this is a carryover from Western tradition.

In modern Japanese, the kun readings are only used for single digit numbers and day-of-month names, although in many contexts the on readings will be used instead. Intermediate numbers are made by combining these elements:

Tens from 20 to 90 are "(digit)-jū".
Hundreds from 200 to 900 are "(digit)-hyaku".
Thousands from 2000 to 9000 are "(digit)-sen".
There are some phonetic modifications to larger numbers, but they are a minor detail.

In large numbers, elements are combined from largest to smallest, and zeros are implied.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Basic numbering in Japanese", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki