How to express numbers from 100 to 999 in Japanese?
百 (hyaku), the digit for the hundred
百 (hyaku) is the digit used to represent the hundred in Japanese.
And 百 has 3 ways of pronunciations,
- hyaku
- byaku
- ppyaku
This change occurs when specific numbers are added to it.
- 3 : byaku
- 6, 8 : ppyaku
- the rest : hyaku
and the sound of 6 and 8 also change.
6 (roku) → ro ppyaku
8 (hachi) → ha ppyaku
And here’s the list of how to read the hundreds place in Japanese.
And you can read it with the tens place and ones place simply by pronouncing it from left to right :
１２4
hyaku ni juu yon
２５６
ni hyaku go juu roku
３８１
san byaku hachi juu ichi
６６６
ro ppyaku roku juu roku
８８２
ha pyyaku hachi juu ni
９９９
kyuu hyaku kyuu juu kyuu
Pay attention to 100!
As you have seen, “hyaku” has no word for “1”.
So, it is as if “one” hundred in Japan is just “hundred”.
100 :
Good : 百 (hyaku)
Not good : 一百, 1百
Why Kanji?
Because the number is already a bit big, both the number and the digit are often written in kanji.
Especially when the number is a nice round number like 100, 200, 900, Kanji writing is often used.
*It’s rare to find the arabic number and 百 combination like 2百 but it exists.
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