Japanese numerals
The system of Japanese numerals is the system of number names used in the Japanese language.
(Some numbers have multiple names.)
| Number | Character | Preferred reading | On reading / 音読み | Kun reading / 訓読み |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 零／〇 | zero | rei / れい | (o) / (お) |
| 1 | 一 | ichi | ichi / いち | hito (abbrev. hi) / ひ |
| 2 | 二 | ni | ni / に | futa (abbrev. fu) / ふ |
| 3 | 三 | san | san / さん | mi / み |
| 4 | 四 | yon | shi / し | yo / よ |
| 5 | 五 | go | go / ご | itsu / いつ |
| 6 | 六 | roku | roku / ろく | mu/mui / む/むい |
| 7 | 七 | nana | shichi / しち | nana / なな(つ) |
| 8 | 八 | hachi | hachi / はち | ya / や(つ) |
| 9 | 九 | kyū | kyū / きゅう | kokono / ここのつ |
| 10 | 十 | jū | jū / じゅう | to / とお |
| 100 | 百 | hyaku | hyaku / ひゃく | (momo) |
| 1000 | 千 | sen | sen / せん | (chi) |
| 8,000,000 | happyakuman | (yaoyorozu*) / やおよろず |
(In modern Japanese, yaoyorozu means something more like "myriad", and is mainly found in set phrases. Historically, however, it simply meant 8 million.)
As you can see, 4 and 7 do not use their on readings, this is superstitous - 死 (death) is pronounced shi.
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.
十一 : 11 : jū-ichi
十七 : 17 : jū-nana
百五十一 : 151 : hyaku go-jū ichi
三百二 : 302 : sam-byaku-ni
四百六十九 : 469 : yon-hyaku roku-jū kyū
二千二十五 : 2025 : ni-sen ni-jū go
Very large numbers are created by grouping digits in fours (every 10000) rather than the Western threes (1000):
| Rank | 104 | 108 | 1012 | 1016 | 1020 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Character | 万 | 億 | 兆 | 京 | 垓 |
| Name | man | oku | chō | kei | gai |
Examples: (spacing by groups of four digits is given only for clarity of explanation)
1`0000 : 一万 : ichi-man
983`6703 : 九百八十三万六千七百三 : kyū-hyaku hachi-jū san man, roku-sen nana-hyaku san
20`3652`1801 : 二十億三千六百五十二万千八百一 : ni-jū oku, san-zen rop-pyaku go-jū ni-man, sen hap-pyaku ichi
To make matters more confusing, in modern usage, numbers written in Arabic numerals are separated by commas every three digits following Western convention, yet spoken using the Japanese four-digit division.
Note that, in Japanese as well as English, the word for "zero" is not used in the name of any integer greater than zero; unlike Chinese, which requires the use of 零 wherever there is a group of zeroes, e.g. 三百零二 for 302.
Japanese also has numerals for decimal fractions, though they are no longer in general use except for hitting averages of baseball players, in some idiomatic phrases (such as 五分五分の勝負 "fifty-fifty chance"), and when representing a rate or discount.
To represent a rate or discount, following words are used:
| Rank | 10-1 | 10-2 | 10-3 | 10-4 | 10-5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Character | 割 | 分 | 厘 | 毛 | 糸 |
| Reading | wari | bu | rin | mou | shi |
一割五分引き ichi-wari go-bu biki "15% discount"
打率三割八分九厘 daritsu san-wari hachi-bu kyū-rin "batting average .389"
In modern usage, decimal fractions are written in Arabic numerals and read as successive digits, as in Western convention.
See Also
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