The simple reason is that some numbers are derived from the native Japanese pronunciation, known as kunyomi. … The other numbers’ pronunciations are drawn from the imported, ancient Chinese readings of kanji, known as onyomi. In the old days, Japanese only had, one, maybe two, ways of saying each number.
Why are there 2 ways of saying 7 in Japanese?
‘Yon’ from ‘yottsu’ in the native Japanese system is a common replacement when people would otherwise say ‘shi’. This change also happens with seven, or ‘shichi’ in the Chinese system because of the ‘shi’ present. It is commonly replaced by the native Japanese equivalent, ‘nana’ from ‘nanatsu’.
Is 7 Nana or Shichi?
Japanese numbers: 1 to 10
| Hiragana | English | Phonetics |
|---|---|---|
| しち / なな | seven | shichi / nana |
| はち | eight | hachi |
| きゅう/く | nine | kyu / ku |
| じゅう | ten | juu |
Why are there 2 ways to count in Japanese?
Second of all, the Japanese number system is based on two sets of pronunciations (or readings): the Sino-Japanese readings (on’yomi or “On reading”) that are based on the Chinese numerals and the Native Japanese readings (kun’yomi or “Kun reading”) that are based on the Japanese yamato kotoba (native words).
How do you say 7 in Japanese?
Seven (7) is 七 (shichi, pronounced “shee-chee”). Because this has the same shi sound as in the number four, the alternate pronunciation nana is common. Eight (8) is 八 (hachi, pronounced “hah-chee”).
What is the Japanese word for 20?
Japanese Numbers 1 – 20
| 6 | 六 | roku |
|---|---|---|
| 17 | 十七 | jū nana |
| 18 | 十八 | jū hachi |
| 19 | 十九 | jū kyu |
| 20 | 二十 | ni-jū |
How do you say zero in Japanese?
All joking aside, the most common way to say zero in Japanese is with the word ゼロ (zero) which of course is a loan word from English. I’ve seen it written in katakana as ゼロ many, many times. Whenever you see it written as the numeral 0 it will also be pronounced this same way.
What does Ko means in Japanese?
newborn babe, child, young of animals.
Why do we say yen instead of en?
The Yen (円) used to be written ゑん (wen), but the letter ‘we’ came to be pronounced ‘ye’ and then ‘e’. The letter ゑ(we) was eventually replaced by え (e), hence ‘en’ in modern Japanese.
Is Ichi pronounced ich?
So, ichi becomes “ich(i)” (with the second “i” essentially whispered), roku becomes “rok(u)”, shichi becomes shich(i) (or alternatively, as Jennifer indicates, “sh(i)chi”, or even “sh(i)ch(i)”, and hachi becomes “hach(i).”
How do you say 1st 2nd 3rd in Japanese?
First of all, the number system is in units of four instead of three, which can make converting into English quite difficult. Also, there are things called counters, which are required to count different types of objects, animals, or people.
…
Vocabulary.
| Day | Kanji | Reading |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | 一日 | ついたち |
| 2nd | 二日 | ふつ・か |
| 3rd | 三日 | みっ・か |
| 4th | 四日 | よっ・か |
How do you say number 21 in Japanese?
Twenty is “ni-juu” (2X10) and for twenty-one, just add one (nijuu ichi).
…
Japanese Numbers.
| zero/rei | 零 | |
|---|---|---|
| 21 | nijuuichi | 二十一 |
| 22 | nijuuni | 二十一 |
| 30 | sanjuu | 三十 |
| 31 | sanjuuichi | 三十一 |
Is Japanese 4 yon or shi?
As noted above, yon (4) and nana (7) are preferred to shi and shichi. It is purported that this is because shi is also the reading of the word 死 (“death”) which makes it an unlucky reading; while shichi may sound too similar to ichi (1), shi or hachi (8).
How do you count millions in Japanese?
In English the next unit corresponding to 1,000 x 1,000 is 1,000,000 (million).
…
How to say Numbers in Japanese: Numbers Above 100,000
- 10,000 ichi-man 「1万」
- 100,000 juu-man 「10万」
- 1,000,000 hyaku-man (one million) 「100万」
- 10,000,000 issen-man 「1000万」