Japanese Numbers

The japanese language uses 10 numbers from 0 to 9. (Duh!)

The numbers are:

4 is considered unlucky because shi is also the word for death. You have to avoid four at all cost, especially when looking for presents :smile:

Numbers above 9

Now how to count up to 20? You will surely see the pattern:

11 jûichi

12 jûni

13 jûsan

14 jûshi/jûyon

15 jûgo

16 jûroku

17 jûshichi/jûnana

18 jûhachi

19 jûkyû

20 nijû

-tsu system

Japanese people use a different system to count up to ten (you didn't expect this to be easy did you? :wink:)

1 hitotsu

2 futatsu

3 mittsu

4 yottsu

5 itsutsu

6 muttsu

7 nanatsu

8 yattsu

9 kokonotsu

10 to

From 11 on the jûichi, jûni, jûsan etc is used.

Counting.

Japanese people cannot count like all of us, they have suffixes to add to a number to express the kind of item that is counted.

Examples:

-mai is used for flat objects like newspapers or stamps

-hon is used for round, long objects like pencils or flowers

-en is used for money (Yen)

-kai is used for houses

-hai is used for liquids

-nin is used for people

-toe is used for large animals

There are more words used for counting this is just a few.

This chibi-lesson should keep you busy for some time so I can copy Abluebond-sensei this time:

Ja ne,

  Akari-chan