Japanese numbers are among the easiest kanji: one stroke for 一, two for 二, three for 三.
One to ten
| Kanji | Reading | Kanji | Reading | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 一 | ichi | 六 | roku | |
| 二 | ni | 七 | nana / shichi | |
| 三 | san | 八 | hachi | |
| 四 | yon / shi | 九 | kyū / ku | |
| 五 | go | 十 | jū |
Three numbers have two readings. Yon (4) and kyū (9) are usually preferred because shi sounds like the word for death and ku like suffering.
Building bigger numbers
Japanese builds numbers like a sentence:
- 十一 (jūichi) = ten + one = 11
- 二十 (nijū) = two tens = 20
- 三百五十 (sanbyaku gojū) = 350
Some sounds shift when they join: 三百 is sanbyaku, 六百 roppyaku, 八百 happyaku, 三千 sanzen.
Counting in ten thousands
English groups by thousands; Japanese groups by ten thousands (万, man). So 10,000 is 一万 (ichiman), 100,000 is 十万 (jūman), and a million is 百万 (hyakuman).
Money
円 (en) is yen. Prices are written like 千円 (sen'en, ¥1,000).