Yukigo
Japanese numbers
Counting in Japanese is more regular than it looks: once you know 1 to 10, almost everything else is built by combining them. The real exceptions fit on one hand.
Here are the charts from 0 to 10,000 with kanji, hiragana reading and romaji, the combination rules and the irregular readings worth knowing.
From 0 to 10
| # | Kanji | Kana | Rōmaji |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 零 / 〇 | れい・ゼロ | rei / zero |
| 1 | 一 | いち | ichi |
| 2 | 二 | に | ni |
| 3 | 三 | さん | san |
| 4 | 四 | よん・し | yon / shi |
| 5 | 五 | ご | go |
| 6 | 六 | ろく | roku |
| 7 | 七 | なな・しち | nana / shichi |
| 8 | 八 | はち | hachi |
| 9 | 九 | きゅう・く | kyū / ku |
| 10 | 十 | じゅう | jū |
From 11 to 99: combine
11 is 十一 (jū-ichi, “ten-one”), 20 is 二十 (ni-jū, “two-ten”), 21 is 二十一 (ni-jū-ichi). No new forms to learn: you stack the numbers you already know.
Tens, hundreds and thousands
Same principle, with 百 (hyaku, 100), 千 (sen, 1,000) and 万 (man, 10,000). Irregular readings are highlighted.
| # | Kanji | Kana | Rōmaji |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20 | 二十 | にじゅう | nijū |
| 30 | 三十 | さんじゅう | sanjū |
| 40 | 四十 | よんじゅう | yonjū |
| 50 | 五十 | ごじゅう | gojū |
| 60 | 六十 | ろくじゅう | rokujū |
| 70 | 七十 | ななじゅう | nanajū |
| 80 | 八十 | はちじゅう | hachijū |
| 90 | 九十 | きゅうじゅう | kyūjū |
| 100 | 百 | ひゃく | hyaku |
| 300 | 三百 | さんびゃく | sanbyaku |
| 600 | 六百 | ろっぴゃく | roppyaku |
| 800 | 八百 | はっぴゃく | happyaku |
| 1.000 | 千 | せん | sen |
| 3.000 | 三千 | さんぜん | sanzen |
| 8.000 | 八千 | はっせん | hassen |
| 10.000 | 一万 | いちまん | ichiman |
The double readings: 4, 7 and 9
四 reads yon or shi, 七 nana or shichi, 九 kyū or ku. Everyday usage prefers yon, nana and kyū — partly because shi sounds like 死 (“death”) and ku like 苦 (“suffering”).
Counters
Japanese doesn't say “three books” but “books, three-volumes”: numbers come with a counter that depends on what you're counting (〜人 for people, 〜本 for long objects, 〜つ as the generic fallback). At the start, 〜つ and 〜人 are enough.
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Frequently asked questions
Japanese groups by ten thousand, not by thousand: 一万 ichiman is 10,000, 十万 jūman 100,000, 百万 hyakuman one million, 一億 ichioku one hundred million.
ゼロ (zero, from English) or 零 (rei); in phone numbers, maru (“circle”) is common.
Euphony: the h of 百 (hyaku) changes in contact with certain sounds → 三百 sanbyaku, 六百 roppyaku, 八百 happyaku. Same for 千: 三千 sanzen, 八千 hassen.
In real life Arabic numerals (1, 2, 3…) are used almost everywhere, but the readings are essential: for speaking, prices and counters. Number kanji are among the first you'll meet anyway.