Today we’re taking on a whole new part: the Japanese numeral system’s study. And let’s start off in style with the Japanese numbers. So, the first interesting thing to know is how do you say « Japanese number » in Japanese.
Kansuuji. I am writing it to you in rōmaji and not in kanji because it is really not necessary that you remember this word but here, for your general knowledge, you now know how it is pronounced. The term « kansuuji » means « Chinese numeric characters » because, let’s not forget, the Japanese, to create their writing, used Chinese characters.
Before going any further, one point needs to be made clear. In our Western languages, we have integrated Arabic characters to establish their numeral system within our languages. Japanese people have their own numeral system based on Chinese characters and pronunciation.
So, we’re going to learn a whole bunch of new kanji related to numbers, we’re even going to learn how to combine them to create bigger and bigger numbers… and « kanji combination » means « Sino-Japanese pronunciation ».
Do not worry. The numbers are not that difficult. It is all a matter of logic and common sense.
Here we go!
一 .
イチ . one
二 .
ニ . two
三 .
サン . three
四 .
シ . four
五 .
ゴ . five
六 .
ロク . six
七 .
シチ . seven
八 .
ハチ . eight
九 .
ク . nine
十 .
ジュウ . ten
百 .
ヒャク . one hundred
千 .
セン . one thousand
We will have some small pronunciation features, especially for the number four. Indeed, the number four in Japanese is pronounced シ and it is a homophone. There are many words in Japanese that are pronounced シ, including the kanji of « Death » (死 . シ).
You should know that in Japan there is a huge superstition on the number four so much that if you have to pronounce this number in its first pronunciation, it is as if you wanted the death of your interlocutor. And that’s anything but nice. This tetraphobia typical of Southeast Asia, in Japan and in China especially, goes much further. For example, if you want to give someone gifts, avoid giving them four. And on Japanese planes, you don’t have a number four seat. And in Japanese hotels, there is no room number four. There are also no fourth floors in some buildings and hospitals. Imagine yourself in an elevator in Japan, you don’t have a number four button. Officially, you go directly from the third to the fifth floor. This superstition is extremely strong in the Land of the Rising Sun.
To return to the accursed pronunciation of the number four, the Japanese remedied it by choosing the purely Japanese pronunciation of this kanji, namely よん. As we are talking about it, know that all the kanji of the numbers have a purely Japanese pronunciation. We will not see them in this course but for now, keep that in mind.
To return to the numbers, we have the number seven which is pronounced シチ and this pronunciation is very similar to the number four which is pronounced シ and the number eight which is pronounced ハチ. To avoid confusing the number seven with the other two, the Japanese use purely Japanese pronunciation, namely なな. According to some people, the Sino-Japanese pronunciation of the number seven is very deprecated because homophone with the word 死地 . シチ which means « land of death », « ideal / suitable place to die ». You will agree with me that this is a very murky term.
Finally, the Japanese have a problem with the number nine (九 . ク) which is pronounced ク in Sino-Japanese pronunciation, homophone of the word 苦 . ク which means « suffering ». You will understand, one more pronunciation which goes rather badly for the Japanese but this time, they did not take the purely Japanese pronunciation, they took another Sino-Japanese reading of this kanji (because the kanji 九 . ク has two Sino-Japanese pronunciations), namely キュウ.
We can now summarize the list of numbers with these new pronunciations :
一 .
イチ . one
二 .
ニ . two
三 .
サン . three
四 .
シ / よん . four
五 .
ゴ . five
六 .
ロク . six
七 .
シチ . seven
八 .
ハチ / なな . eight
九 .
ク / キュウ. nine
十 .
ジュウ . ten
百 .
ヒャク . one hundred
千 .
セン . one thousand
That being said, if you are not superstitious, you can quite pronounce the number four « シ », the number seven « シチ » and the number nine « ク » but in my opinion, I strongly recommend that you use only the purely Japanese pronunciations of the number four and the number seven, and the second Sino-Japanese pronunciation of the number nine. If you have to speak to a Japanese, – which is very likely otherwise you would not be on this site – you only need to use the right readings so as not to make your interlocutor uncomfortable. Again, I highly recommend it, it is very important !
Before finishing this course, we still have to see the number 0 which, in Japanese, is written with this kanji, 零, and is pronounced in Sino-Japanese reading レイ or even ゼロ in the West. Sometimes Japanese people write the zero as well : 〇. It is not a kanji, nor a hiragana, nor a katakana but rather a special character.
零 / 〇.
レイ / ゼロ
→ Zero
Honestly, the kanji 零 is hardly ever used in everyday life. It’s a relatively difficult kanji to remember, even for Japanese people. You will find this kanji mainly in some anime or video game titles. So, even if you can’t remember how to write it, at least memorize it to be able to recognize it if you come across it.
Here we are at the end of this first course on the Japanese numeral system. Until then, there is nothing complicated. You have to memorize these kanji by heart. Write them down, recite them hundreds of times, thousands of times if necessary until they stay in your memory.
In the next course, we will learn how to create larger numbers by combining the Sino-Japanese pronunciations of all these kanji together and don’t worry, Japanese numbers are extremely easy to understand. Once you understand the logic to follow, you will be able to handle all these numbers with ease.
As usual, I’m giving you your exercises. In the first, I give you Japanese numbers in kanji and you have to write them in Arabic numbers, in the second, I give you Arabic numbers and you have to write them in kanji. Also practice writing the kanji of zero and its different readings.
You already know the little message that makes you happy. Thank you for reading this course. Keeping being diligent in your work and you will make progress, I guarantee it.
I wish you to revise your course well and see you next time.
Introduction