Lesson 2: Numbers and Counting

Konnichiwa minna-san. This lesson is on numbers and counting ^_^. We will go over the numbers used for counting in Japanese, as well as those used for denoting quantity. The .phpick is same as before, so if you have any questions, comments, or just want to thank me(or scream at me) ^_^, you know how to reach me

Also in this lesson I'm including the Japanese characters for the numbers, so you can see how they look. If you have the latest version of Netscape(4.6, or higher), go to the View -Character Set-Japanese(auto select), and you'll see them. In Explorer, if you've allready installed the Japanese font set (here), go to View-Fonts-Japanese(Auto-Select). If you still can't see them, just click here.

There are two number systems in use in Japan, one goes only from one to ten, and is used for denoting quantity (for some items at least). While the other is Chinese in origin, and is used primarily for counting, mathematics, or rank/order( i.e number one(ichiban), 50 (gojuu) yen ). This system goes to infinity ^_^.

Cardinal Numbers

The following chart will show both systems, from 1 to 10, as well as the Kanji used for these numbers. I suggest you first learn the ones that are Chinese in origin, as they are the ones used for all counting, (money included ^_^).

11 to 19

Now we can go on to numbers from 11 to 19 ^_^. To form these numbers, first put juu(10), and then add to it the corresponding number from the second column. So 11 would be juuichi, 12 juuni, 14 juusan, and so on: 15 is juugo 16 is juuroku, and 18 is ______ (you tell me ^_^)

Are you all still with me on this? Good ^_^, because now it gets even easier. Twenty is two tens, or nijuu, twenty one is nijuuichi, and 34 is sanjuushi.(Only for 40, 70, and 90 we use yonjuu, nanjuu, and kyuujuu respectively )

100 and Up

With 100(hyaku) and 1,000(sen) the pattern is pretty much the same, but there are some changes as you'll see below.

100	hyaku	1,000	sen
200	niyaku	2,000	nisen
300	sanbyaku	3,000	sanzen
400	yonhyaku	4,000	yonsen
500	gohyaku	5,000	gosen
600	roppyaku	6,000	roksen
700	happyaku	7,000	nansen
800	happyaku	8,000	hassen
900	kyuuhyaku	9,000	kyuusen

Japanese uses 10,000 as a counting unit. Each unit of 10,000 is called a man.

Therefore 10,000 is ichiman, 20,000 is niman(etc..), 100,000 is juman (10 units of 10,000), 200,000 is nijuuman. this continues untill 100,000,000 which is ichioku. (I don't think we need to go any further with this, eh? ^_^) Now on to:

Ordinal Numbers

The ordinal numbers (first, second etc) are formed by adding -banme to the cardinal number. So first is ichibanme, second nibanme, third is sanbanme and so on. (as before, use the alternate numbers for 4, 7, and 9)

This is the end of lesson two ^_^. I hope that you liked it. Next week, when I put up the new lesson, it will have a quiz on this one, so you better study hard ^_^. The next lesson will be on reading Japanese, which will be done in three parts. The Katakana alphabet will be next week.

See you then!!!

Ja ne