Lesson 5

Japanese Numbers (How To Count), Time, And Days of the Week

Before we get too much further into Japanese grammar and verb conjugation, I thought it would be a good idea to teach Japanese numbers, time, and the days of the week.

漢字 - Kanji	ひらがな - Hiragana	Romaji(English Letters)	English Meaning
一	いち	ichi	one
二	に	ni	two
三	さん	san	three
四	し、よん	shi (yon after 10)	four
五	ご	go	five
六	ろく	roku	six
七	しち、なな	shichi (nana after 10)	seven
八	はち	hachi	eight
九	きゅう	kyuu	nine
十	じゅう	juu	ten
百	ひゃく	hyaku	hundred

Numbers after 10 are a piece of cake once you know 1 through 10. 11 is simply ten with a one after it, 十一 (じゅういち, juuichi), 12 - juuni, 13 - juusan, 14 - juuyon, etc. 20 is simply 二十 (にじゅう, nijuu), 21 - nijuuichi, and so forth.

Put these numbers in front of the character for time 時 and you've got the time of the day.

漢字 - Kanji	ひらがな - Hiragana	Romaji(English Letters)	English Meaning
一時	いちじ	ichiji	one o'clock
二時	にじ	niji	two o'clock
二時半	にじはん	nijihan	two thirty (半 means half)
二時四十五分	にじよんじゅうごふん	nijiyonjuugofun	2:45 (分 means minute)
...etc.

Now just put the character for moon 月 after a number and you've got a month.

漢字 - Kanji	ひらがな - Hiragana	Romaji(English Letters)	English Meaning
一月	いちがつ	ichigatsu	January
二月	にがつ	nigatsu	February
三月	さんがつ	sangatsu	March
四月	しがつ	shigatsu	April
...etc.

Japanese days of the week don't follow such an easy pattern but here they are anyway along with some other time-related words.

Basic Japanese Grammar

Japanese Verb Conjugation (Godan)