Numbers, counters and time

Numbers are the first part of Japanese that pays for itself the same afternoon you learn it. Prices, platform numbers, opening hours, your age, the time you are meeting somebody: all of it runs on a small set of words that almost never change. The system is regular in a way English is not, and the few irregular spots are so common that you will have them by heart within a week.

One to ten

Two of these have alternative readings that you will hear constantly, so learn both from the start.

よん, なな and きゅう are the safe defaults when you are counting on your own or reading a number aloud. し, しち and く turn up inside fixed expressions, above all in times and dates, and you cannot substitute for them there. Four o'clock is よじ and never よんじ, seven o'clock is しちじ, nine o'clock is くじ.

Eleven to ten thousand

Above ten, Japanese simply stacks. Eleven is ten plus one, twenty is two tens, and there are no new words at all until you reach a hundred.

じゅういち、じゅうに、じゅうさん
juu ichi, juu ni, juu san
eleven, twelve, thirteen

にじゅう、さんじゅう、よんじゅう
ni juu, san juu, yon juu
twenty, thirty, forty

ろくじゅうはち
roku juu hachi
sixty-eight

A hundred is ひゃく and a thousand is せん. Ten thousand is まん, and this is the one that trips English speakers, because Japanese groups large numbers in tens of thousands rather than thousands. Twenty thousand is にまん, and a hundred thousand is じゅうまん.

Three combinations change their sound, and you have to know them because they appear in prices every day: three hundred is さんびゃく, six hundred is ろっぴゃく, eight hundred is はっぴゃく. Three thousand is さんぜん and eight thousand is はっせん.

Counters

Japanese cannot count a thing with a bare number. Between the number and the thing sits a counter, a small word chosen to match the kind of object. English does this only in places like "two slices of bread"; Japanese does it always.

つ has its own set of readings that owe nothing to いち, に, さん: ひとつ, ふたつ, みっつ, よっつ, いつつ, むっつ, ななつ, やっつ, ここのつ, とお. It stops at ten, and above that you use じゅういち with no counter at all. It is the counter to reach for when you cannot remember the right one, and it will not sound wrong.

にん is regular except at the bottom, where one person is ひとり and two people are ふたり.

りんご を ふたつ かいます
ringo o futatsu kaimasu
I will buy two apples

ノート を さんさつ かいます
nooto o san satsu kaimasu
I will buy three notebooks

きって を ごまい ください
kitte o go mai kudasai
Five stamps, please

Notice where the counter sits. It follows the noun and its particle rather than standing in front of the noun the way an English number does. りんご を ふたつ is the ordinary shape, and the number floats free of the thing it counts.

Telling the time

Hours take じ and minutes take ふん, which becomes ぷん after some numbers. Half past is はん.

いま さんじ です
ima san ji desu
It is three o'clock

ごぜん くじ はん です
gozen ku ji han desu
It is half past nine in the morning

ごご よじ じゅっぷん です
gogo yo ji juppun desu
It is ten past four in the afternoon

ごぜん is a.m. and ごご is p.m., and they come before the time rather than after it. The irregular hours are the three flagged earlier: よじ, しちじ, くじ. For minutes, いっぷん, さんぷん, よんぷん, ろっぷん, はっぷん and じゅっぷん take ぷん, while にふん, ごふん and ななふん keep ふん.

To pin an action to a time, put に after the clock time. This is the particle lesson six promised you.

しちじ に あさごはん を たべます
shichi ji ni asagohan o tabemasu
I eat breakfast at seven

ごご ろくじ に かえります
gogo roku ji ni kaerimasu
I go home at six in the evening

くじ はん に べんきょう を します
ku ji han ni benkyou o shimasu
I study at half past nine

に goes only on times you could point to on a clock or a calendar. It never goes on きょう, あした, まいあさ or いま, which stand in the sentence with no particle, exactly as they did in the last lesson.

Days and months

Months are wonderfully easy: the number plus がつ. January is いちがつ, seven is しちがつ, and the whole year takes about a minute to learn. The two to watch are しがつ for April and くがつ for September, which use the short readings again.

Days of the month are not easy. The first ten, plus the fourteenth, the twentieth and the twenty-fourth, have their own readings: ついたち, ふつか, みっか, よっか, いつか, むいか, なのか, ようか, ここのか, とおか, and then じゅうよっか, はつか, にじゅうよっか. Everything else is the plain number plus にち. Learn ついたち and はつか now and pick up the rest as you need them.

たんじょうび は しちがつ ようか です
tanjoubi wa shichi gatsu youka desu
My birthday is the eighth of July

What learners get wrong

The commonest error is reading four and seven with よん and なな inside times. よじ, しちじ and くじ are fixed, and a Japanese listener will hesitate over よんじ.

The second is dropping the counter. さん りんご is not a Japanese phrase. If you cannot recall the right counter, use つ and move on.

The third is grouping large numbers in threes because that is how the digits are printed. Read them in tens of thousands instead: 30,000 is さんまん, not thirty せん.

Vocabulary

• いま (ima): now
• じ (ji): o'clock, hour
• ふん (fun): minute
• はん (han): half past
• ごぜん (gozen): a.m.
• ごご (gogo): p.m.
• なんじ (nanji): what time
• がつ (gatsu): month of the year
• にち (nichi): day of the month
• たんじょうび (tanjoubi): birthday
• りんご (ringo): apple
• きって (kitte): stamp
• かえります (kaerimasu): go home, return
• ください (kudasai): please give me
• ノート (nooto): notebook