Japanese numerals Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description
| Table of contents |
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2 Powers of 10 3 Formal numbers 4 See also 5 External links |
The system of Japanese numerals is the system of number names used in the Japanese language.
(Some numbers have multiple names.)
Basic numbering in Japanese
| Number | Character | Preferred reading | On reading / 音読み | Kun reading / 訓読み |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 零／〇 | zero | rei / れい | nothing |
| 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) |
| 10000 | 万 | man | man / まん | (yorozu) |
| 8,000,000 | 八百万 | happyakuman | 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.)
The numbers 4 and 9 are considered unlucky in Japanese: 4, pronounced shi, is a homophone for "death"; 9, pronounced kū, is a homophone for "suffering."
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
| 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, when long numbers are written out in kanji, zeros are omitted for all powers of ten, unlike Chinese, which requires the use of 零 wherever a zero appears, e.g. 三百零二 for 302.
| 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"
With the exception of wari, these are rarely seen in modern usage. Decimal fractions are typically written with either kanji numerals (vertically) or Arabic numerals (horizontally), preceded by a decimal point, and are read as successive digits, as in Western convention. Note that they can be combined with either the traditional system of expressing numerals (42.195 kilometers: 四十二・一九五 キロメートル), in which powers of ten are written, or with the place value system, which uses zero (50.04 percent: 五〇・〇四 パーセント).
| Formal | Common | Arabic |
|---|---|---|
| 壱 | 一 | 1 |
| 弐 | 二 | 2 |
| 参 | 三 | 3 |
| 肆 | 四 | 4 |
| 伍 | 五 | 5 |
| 陸 | 六 | 6 |
| 漆 | 七 | 7 |
| 捌 | 八 | 8 |
| 玖 | 九 | 9 |
| 拾 | 十 | 10 |
| 廿 | 二十 | 20 |
| 佰 | 百 | 100 |
| 仟 | 千 | 1,000 |
| 萬 | 万 | 10,000 |
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