Teach me Japanese numbers!
Two types of numerals
In Japanese, they use two types of numerals : Arabic and Chinese
Arabic numerals :
0123456789
Chinese numerals :
〇一二三四五六七八九
And, there are actually more to Chinese numerals.
For example, although we can combine 1 and 0 to make 10 in Arabic numerals,
十
Juu
Ten
is the equivalent in Chinese numerals.
Which system to use?
Basically, there is a rule about which numeral system to use when it comes to writing it.
Arabic numerals : Mostly horizontal writing
Chinese numerals : Mostly official documents and vertical writing
But this rule is not very strict.
It’s more of a trend.
The most important thing is that once you use one of them in a document, you stick to it.
*Yes, we use both horizontal and vertical writing in Japanese.
How to pronounce?
Both Arabic and Chinese numerals are pronounced in the same way.
So here, let’s use Arabic ones here for easy understanding.
0 zero / rei
1 ichi
2 ni
3 san
4 yon / shi
5 go
6 roku
7 nana / shichi
8 hachi
9 kyuu / ku
And as you can see 0, 4, 7 and 9 have two ways of being pronounced.
People use them randomly, so we need to remember them.
Tips
There is one more thing that we need to pay attention to.
It’s that the pronunciation of the numerals backwards, like counting down makes them to be pronounced in only one way.
9 kyuu
8 hachi
7 nana
6 roku
5 go
4 yon
3 san
2 ni
1 ichi
0 zero
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