In Japanese, numbers are sometimes written as in English, but often also written with Japanese signs. In this lesson you will learn numbers using a shopping example.

Key Topics Covered

Content : Shopping
Grammar : Numbers
に (ni) – for [someone] (particle)

Dialogue

In the following dialogue, mr. Tanaka is out shopping shoes for his son. He has found a pair of shoes, and approaches the store staff to ask some details about them

Japanese:
田中 : すみません、この　くつ　の　サイズ　は　何　です　か？
店の人 : 22 センチ　です。
田中 : よかった、十一さい　の　むすこ　に　あいます。いくら　です　か。
店の人 : 13500 円　です。
田中 : じゃ、これ　を　おねがいします。
店の人 : ありがとう　ございました。


Roomaji:
Tanaka : Sumimasen, kono kutsu no saizu wa nan desu ka?
Mise no hito: : Ni juu ni senchi desu.
Tanaka : Yokatta, juuichi sai no musuko ni aimasu. ikura desu ka?
Mise no hito: : Ichi man san zen go hyaku en desu.
Tanaka : Ja, kore o onegaishimasu.
Mise no hito: : Arigatou gozaimashita.

English:
Tanaka : Excuse me, what size are these shoes?
Shop staff : (They are) 22 cm.
Tanaka : Great, they will fit my 11 year old son. How much are (they)?
Shop staff : (That would be) 13500 yen.
Tanaka : Well then, I’ll take them. [Lit: well then, these please]
Shop staff : Thank you very much.

Vocabulary

くつ 。 kutsu 。 shoes
センチ senchi centimeter
よかった yokatta great, good
〜さい ~sai age (said after a number)
むすこ musuko son
あいます aimasu suit, fit
いくら ikura how much

Dialogue Notes

In the dialogue, the particle に (ni) was used to indicate who the shoes were for. The particle is placed after the receiver of the thing or action. Use the following pattern to indicate that something is intended for someone.

Pattern
… [someone] に … [verb].

Let’s look at some other examples. Remember that the word order of Japanese is different from English and many other languages, and some parts can be moved around without changing the meaning of the sentence. Read more about the particle に (ni) and it’s various uses in the article L205 Tension in the office and the Language Reference article on particles.

田中さん　に　話しました。
tanakasan ni hanashimashita.
(I) told Tanakasan. [Lit: tanakasan to talked]

むすこ　に くつ　を　買いました。
musuko ni kutsu o kaimashita.
(I) bought shoes for (my) son.

私　は　田中さん　に ごはん　を つくりました。
watashi wa tanaka san ni gohan o tsukurimashita.
I made a meal for mr. Tanaka.

Notes on the Writing of Numbers

Note that we used Japanese number characters for the age, but Western numbers when talking about price and shoe sizes. When writing traditionally, top down, it is most common to use Japanese characters for numbers, but when writing from left to right it is most common to use Western number characters. It is especially common when writing a large number with many digits, like the price in the dialogue. Short numbers, that almost feels like a word together with it’s ending can be written with Japanese numbers even when writing from left to right. For shoe sizes, western digits are more common, maybe because it is followed by センチ, a loan word for centimeter.

Numbers

Let’s jump start directly with a list of all ordinary numbers in Japanese. The basic numbers are written and pronounced as follows.

0 rei, zero 0 十一 juu ichi
 11
一 ichi 1 十二 juu ni
 12
二 ni 2
三 san 3 二十 ni juu
 20
四 shi, yon 4 二十一 ni juu ichi
 21
五 go 5 三十
 san juu 30
六 roku 6
七 shichi, nana 7 百
hyaku, byaku
 100, 300
八 hachi 8 千
sen, zen
 1.000, 3.000
九 kyu, ku 9 万 man 10.000
十 juu,too 10 億 oku 100.000.00

The numbers are put together and read in the same order as English, just note that they have words not only for hundred and thousand, but also special words for ten thousand, hundred millions, and so fourth.

Please note that some numbers have several pronunciations. We have not included all pronunciations, but you can look up them in the dictionary function to the right by writing or copying in the kanji and pressing the search button.

Excercise

Try reading the following numbers, using the table above:

六　　　　　(ろく / roku)
十七　　　　(じゅうしち / juu shichi)
三十五　　　(さんじゅうご / san juu go)
四十一　　　(よんじゅういち / yon juu ichi)
百九十四　　(ひゃくきゅうじゅうよん / hyaku kyuu juu yon)
二十万百八　(にじゅうまんひゃくはち / ni juu man hyaku hachi)

The answers are, in order; six, seventeen, thirty five, forty one, one hundred ninety four and two hundred thousand one hundred eight.

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  2. Free Japanese Lesson: Greetings and Phrases
  3. Free Japanese Lesson: This and That
  4. Possessive form