|
Numbers
In Japanese it is very easy to construct numers from single
digits. The procedure is very straight forward. Unfortunately,
it gets more complicated when counting objects, because certain
qualifiers must be used. Let's start with digits, the easy
part.
No. |
Kanji |
Hiragana |
Romaji |
English |
0 |
零 |
ゼロ，れい |
zero, rei |
zero |
1 |
一 |
いち |
ichi |
one |
2 |
二 |
に |
ni |
two |
3 |
三 |
さん |
san |
three |
4 |
四 |
よん，し |
yon, shi |
four |
5 |
五 |
ご |
go |
five |
6 |
六 |
ろく |
roku |
six |
7 |
七 |
なな，しち |
nana, shichi |
seven |
8 |
八 |
はち |
hachi |
eight |
9 |
九 |
く |
ku |
nine |
To build larger numbers, the following building blocks may
also be needed:
No. |
Kanji |
Hiragana |
Romaji |
English |
10 |
十 |
じゅう |
juu |
ten |
100 |
百 |
ひゃく |
hyaku |
hundred |
1 000 |
千 |
せん |
sen |
thousand |
10 000 |
万 |
まん |
man |
ten thousand |
100 000 000 |
億 |
おく |
oku |
hundred million |
It can be noticed that the Japanese counting
is not based on the power of thousands (million, billion, trillion),
but on the power of hundreds.
Building numbers
The above tables contain the essential building
blocks. They are the elements which build all other combinations.
Here are some self explanatory examples:
No. |
Romaji |
Explanation |
11 |
juu ichi |
ten + one |
12 |
juu ni |
ten + two |
13 |
juu san |
ten + three |
20 |
ni juu |
two * ten |
21 |
ni juu ichi |
two * ten + one |
22 |
ni juu ni |
two * ten + two |
30 |
san juu |
three * ten |
101 |
hyaku ichi |
hundred + one |
110 |
hyaku juu |
hundred + ten |
111 |
hyaku juu ichi |
hundred + ten + one |
112 |
hyaku juu ni |
hundred + ten + two |
124 |
hyaku ni juu yon |
100 + 2 * 10 + 4 |
586 |
go hyaku hachi juu roku |
5 * 100 + 8 * 10 + 6 |
1984 |
sen ku hyaku hachi juu yon |
1000 + 9 * 100 + 8 * 10 +4 |
2007 |
ni sen nana |
2 * 1000 + 7 |
The above examples show that the Japanese number
building makes perfect mathematical sense.
| 
