Upland Martial Arts Center
Counting in Japanese
1 Ichi ("itch")
2 Ni ("knee")
3 San ("saan")
4 Shi ("she") - *Yon ("yawn")*
5 Go ("go")
6 Roku ("rue - k")
7 Shichi ("she -ch") - *Nana ("naa-naa")*
8 Hachi ("hach")
9 Ku ("coo")
10 Ju ("joo")
Numbers past 10
11 Juichi ("joo-itch") - It is simply "10 - 1"
12 Juni ("joo-knee")
and so on....
20 Niju ("knee-joo") - It is simply "2 - 10"
21 Nijuichi ("knee-joo-itch") "2 - 10 - 1"
and so on....
30 Sanju ("saan-joo")
40 Yonju ("yawn-joo")
100 Hyaku ("he-ya-koo")
101 Hyaku-ichi ("he-ya-koo-itch")
200 Ni-hyaku ("knee-he-ya-koo")
201 Ni-hyaku-itch ("knee-he-ya-koo-itch")
*600* Roppyaku ("row-pya-koo")
*800* Happyaku ("ha-pya-koo")
1000 Sen ("sen") - The "s" sounds like a "z" when it comes after an "n".
See the example below.
1001 Sen-itch ("sen-itch")
*8000* Hassen ("ha-sen")
10,000 Man ("maan")
100,000 Ju-man ("joo-maan") - This is literally "ten ten-thousands"
1,000,000 Hyaku-man ("he-ya-koo-maan")
Just keep adding the numbers together
Examples: 3458 = San-zen-yon-hyaku-go-ju-hachi
8639 = Hassen-roku-hyaku-san-ju-ku
43,784 = Yon-man-nana-hyaku-hachi-ju-shi
The story of 4 and 7
Many of the Japanese characters are "borrowed" from the Chinese. There is a unique Japanese
language but the Chinese characters are what are more commonly used.
"Shi" is the Chinese symbol for "four" (note: even though it's the same written character,
the Chinese and Japanese pronounce them differently) but is also the Japanese character for "death".
The Japanese feel uncomfortable using the same character for their numbers and for death - so it
is common practice to use the native Japanese characters for 4 and for 7 (the first half of seven is
"shi").
Past counting to ten, it is considered proper form to use the Japanese characters instead of the
Chinese when using 4 or 7. You can use "shi" or "shichi" for the one's digit - but not for the
other digits.
Example: 17 = Jushichi but 70 = Nanaju.
40 = Yonju - but 44 = Yonjushi