Counting things in Japanese is very easy in its basic form. If you want to master it, it can however be quite tricky, even though you will get along fine with the basic ways of counting.

There are two things that sets counting in Japanese apart from western languages. First of all, Japanese also have a word for 10.000, which confuses our brains a bit  when it comes to big numbers. For instance, one million would be said in japanese as hyaku man, which translates to hundred ten-thousand.

The second thing is that Japanese has specialized ways of counting different things. For instance a pen is counted with the words for long slender objects, while paper is counted with the words for flat objects.

Look at the examples below, it will probably make things a bit clearer.

Basic Numbers

0 零 rei /zero
1 一 ichi 10 十 juu 100 百 hyaku 1000 千 sen
2 二 ni 20 二十 nijuu 200 二百 nihyaku 2000 二千 nisen
3 三 san 30 三十 sanjuu 300 三百 sanbyaku 3000 三千 sanzen
4 四 shi/yon 40 四十 yonjuu 400 四百 yonhyaku 4000 四千 yonsen
5 五 go 50 五十 gojuu 500 五百 gohyaku 5000 五千 gosen
6 六 roku 60 六十 rokujuu 600 六百 roppyaku 6000 六千 rokusen
7 七 shichi/ nana 70 七十 nanajuu 700 七百 nanahyaku 7000 七千 nanasen
8 八 hachi 80 八十 hachijuu 800 八百 happyaku 8000 八千 hassen
9 九 ku/kyuu 90 九十 kyuujuu 900 九百 kyuuhyaku 9000 九千 kyuusen

10,000 万 man/ichiman
100,000 十万 juuman
1,000,000 百万 hyakuman
10,000,000 千万 senman/issenman
100,000,000 億 oku/ichioku
1,000,000,000 十億 juuoku

Numbers in Japanese are composed by adding the greater number to the left, and the smaller to the right. To change from ten to twenty, a two is added before the character meaning ten. Here are some examples:

二十四 ni juu yon 24
二百四十三
 ni hyaku yon juu san 243
千二百
 (is)sen ni hyaku
 1200

Counters

In Japanese, you often add an ending to the number in order to show what you are counting. As a real new beginner, make sure you learn the general and people counters, and then take the others one by one later. Also refer to the List of Counters .

General People Stamps Pencils
1 hitotsu hitori (一人) ichimai (一枚) ippon (一本)
2 futatsu futari nimai nihon
3 mittsu sannin sanmai sanbon
4 yottsu yonnin yomai yonhon
5 itsutsu gonin gomai gohon
6 muttsu rokunin rokumai roppon
7 nanatsu nananin nanamai nanahon
8 yattsu hachinin hachimai happon
9 kokonotsu kyuunin kyuumai kyuuhon
10 tou juunin juumai juppon
? ikutsu nannin nanmai nanbon

Books Small animals Floors
1 issatsu (一冊) ippiki (一匹) ikkai (一階)
2 nisatsu nihiki nikai
3 sansatsu sanbiki sangai
4 yonsatsu yonhiki yonkai
5 gosatsu gohiki gokai
6 rokusatsu roppiki rokkai
7 nanasatsu nanahiki nanakai
8 hassatsu happiki hakkai
9 kyuusatsu kyuuhiki kyuukai
10 juusatsu juupiki juukai
?
 nansatsu nanbiki nankai

Ordinal Numbers (-me)

To count the order of things, you add the suffix -me to the end of the counter. Counting unspecific objects, the ordinal numbers are formed by adding -banme to the ordinary numbers.

一番目 １ばんめ ichibanme first
二番目 ２ばんめ nibanme second
百番目
 100ばんめ hyakubanme the houndredth

But you can also count the order using the specific counters for each type of object by adding -me to the end of the counter. This is illustrated in the following table:

一枚目
１まいめ ichimaime the first (flat thing)
一匹目
１っぴきめ
ippikime the first (small animal)

Ordinal Numbers (dai-)

A construct that sounds a bit more formal is the dai- prefix. If you add it to the beginning of a word it will also mark that it is at a specific order. It also sounds more related to big things, such as property or big machines.

第一ターミナルで会いましょう
daiichi ta-minaru de aimashou.
Let’s meet at terminal one. (at an airport)

マクドナルドの日本第一号店は１９８０に開店しました。
makudonarudo no nihon daiichigou ten wa 1980 ni kaiten shimashita
The first McDonalds restaurant in Japan opened in 1980.

Links

  • For a more extensive description of different counters, see List of Counters.
  • Learn about numbers in the lesson Numbers

This page is partly based on “Some Notes on Japanese Grammar” published for your personal use, with the kind permission of Keith Smillie (http://www.cs.ualberta.ca/~smillie/)

Related posts:

  1. Free Japanese Lesson: Numbers