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Japanese numerals - system of number names used in the Japanese language
 

The system of Japanese numerals is the system of number names used in the Japanese language.

(Some numbers have multiple names.)

Number

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

100

1000

Character

Preferred reading

rei

ichi

ni

san

yon

go

roku

nana

hachi

kyū

hyaku

sen

On Reading

rei

ichi

ni

san

shi

go

roku

shichi

hachi

kyū

hyaku

sen

音読み

れい

いち

さん

ろく

しち

はち

きゅう

じゅう

ひゃく

せん

Kun Reading

 

hitotsu

futatsu

mit'tsu

yot'tsu/yon

itsutsu

mut'tsu

nanatsu

yattsu

kokonotsu

to

 

chi

訓読み

 

ひとつ

ふたつ

みっつ

よっつ/よん

いつつ

むっつ

ななつ

やっつ

ここのつ

とう

 

As you can see, 4 and 7 do not use their On readings, this is superstitous - (death) is pronounced shi.

Intermediate numbers are made by combining these elements:
Tens from 20 to 90 are "(digit)-jū".
Hundreds from 200 to 900 are "(digit)-hyaku".
Thousands from 2000 to 9000 are "(digit)-sen".
There are some phonetic modifications to larger numbers, but they are a minor detail.

In large numbers, elements are combined from largest to smallest, and zeros are implied.
十一 : 11 : jū-ichi
十七 : 17 : jū-nana
百五十一 : 151 : hyaku go-jū ichi
三百二 : 302 : sam-byaku-ni
四百六十九 : 469 : yon-hyaku roku-jū kyū
二千二十五 : 2025 : ni-sen ni-jū go

Now the main point: REALLY big numbers are made in a manner nearly identical to that in English, EXCEPT they use groups for four digits:

Rank

104

108

1012

Character

Name

man

oku

cho

Examples: (spacing by groups of four digits is given only for clarity of explanation)
1`0000 : ichi-man
983`6703 : kyū-hyaku hachi-jū san man roku-sen nana-hyaku san
20`3652`1801 : ni-jū oku san-zen rop-pyaku go-jū ni-man sen hap-pyaku ichi

Note that, in Japanese as well as English, the word for "zero" is not used in the name of any integer greater than zero; unlike Chinese, which requires the use of wherever there is a group of zeroes, i.e. 三百零二 for 302.

Since Japanese language was heavily influenced by Chinese, Japanese numerals for small numbers are identical to Chinese numerals except the difference in pronunciations. For large numbers, the numerals are often different, because of different number syntax.

Article text is from Wikipedia and licensed under terms of GFDL. The original article can be found here.
 
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