Japanese numbers

The Japanese numbering system is the naming system for numbers used in the Japanese language. Japanese numbering is entirely based on Chinese numbering, with large numbers being collected in groups of 10,000. (Some numbers have multiple names)

Numbers from 0 to 1000

As you can see, the preferred reading for the numbers 4 and 7 is not the reading on (on'yomi), and this is due to a superstition: 死 (death) is pronounced 'shi&# 39;, like 4. The use of 'sho' for the 1, as well as the reading 'rei' for 0, for example, with the measurement of temperatures (0 °C).

Intermediate numbers are written by combining these elements:

The tens between 20 and 90 are "(digit)-jū".

The hundreds between 200 and 900 are "(digit)-hyaku".

The thousand units between 2000 and 9000 are "(digit)-sen".

There are phonetic modifications for some numbers:

 300: sanbyaku (Instead of sanhyaku).

▪ 600: roppyaku (Instead of rokuhyaku).

 800: Happyaku (Instead of hachihyaku).

 3000: sanzen (Instead of sansen).

↓: 8000: ♪ (Instead of hachisen).

In numbers, elements are combined from greatest to least, and zeros are assumed.

11: jyū-ichi

▪ 17: jyū-nana

: 151: hyaku go-jyū ichi

Łódá ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü

Русский 简体字: 365: sanbyaku roku-jū go

469: yon-hyaku roku-jū kyū

▷✅ read: 2025: ni-sen ni-jyū go

10,000 and up

Really large numbers are constructed in much the same way as they are constructed in the West, only instead of breaking them into groups of three (by thousands) they are broken into groups of four (by myriads):

In Japanese, "man", "oku",..., are always preceded by a number, even if it is only one (ichi). This is analogous to what happens in Spanish with the numbers "millón", "billón", etc. Here, too, some phonetic modifications take place.

Examples: (separation into groups of four digits provided for clarity)

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

10'0000: jū-manor also: hyaku-sen, literally "a hundred thousand")

Note that in both Japanese and Spanish, the word "zero" in the name of integers greater than zero.

Because the Japanese language has been heavily influenced by Chinese throughout history, Japanese numerals are identical to Chinese numerals for small numbers. For large numbers, the symbols are in many cases different, due to a different syntax for expressing the numbers.

Frequently, and due to the strong western influence in the archipelago, the Japanese use a mixture of Arabic numerals and Chinese characters. In this case, the Chinese characters for "ten thousand" and its successive powers, but they have the function of "myriad separators". The figures themselves are written according to Arabic numerals. For example, an item in a shop window might cost 2万5,000 yen (25,000), and a tycoon's fortune might be 4万3,200 dollars (432 million).

Kanji - Japanese Numbers

You can also write the numbers in the western style, and using the comma as a thousands separator and the decimal point (as is done in Anglo-Saxon countries), or even mix this with the Chinese characters that act as myriad separators. For example, 12,345,678 or 1,234万5,678 for the number 12 345 678.

Finally, characters for multiples of 10 are sometimes omitted, and numbers are expressed as a sequence of digits. In this case, a circle (〇) is used to represent zero. The number 4096 would be expressed like this, according to this convention: 四〇九六.

Fractions

In Japanese there are also special characters for decimal fractions, although they are no longer in general use except to indicate some averages for baseball players, winning percentages for sports teams, some idioms (such as 五分五分の勝負, 50-50 probability, or 50% probability) and to express a rate or discount.

To express rates or discounts, the following words are used:

For example:

▷✅, ichi-wari go-bu biki " 15% discount"

한 de, daritsu san-wari hachi-bu kyū-rin "media of blending 0.389"

In modern usage, decimal fractions are written with Arabic numerals and are read as a sequence of digits, more or less according to Western convention.

Formal Japanese numerals

There is also a set of characters to write on legal documents to prevent an unscrupulous person from adding a stroke or two to a number and changing a one to a two or three (or even a ten). These are the formal characters:

Expressions and superstitions

Superstition is very present in Japanese numbering. The numbers 4, 7 and 9 change their pronunciation as they are pronounced the same as other Japanese words of bad omen. For example, shi (死) means death, and is pronounced the same as 4, so to remedy this, pronounce 4 as yon. In some hospitals there is no room number 42 (shi-ni) since this is a very bad omen number, and its meaning may be the expression 'prepare to die'. Similarly, some maternity hospitals do not have room 43 (shi-san) as it is pronounced the same as 'stillbirth'.

The number 8,000,000 (eight million) has the more common on reading of happyakuman, with the literal meaning of eight million. Reading kun, yaoyorozu, simply means a very large number, as in English "una infinidad", although originally it also meant eight million. It appears mostly in stock phrases, for example, in the Shinto belief of "yaoyorozu no kami" (eight million gods). It does not mean that there are eight million gods, but rather that there are a great number of gods, an infinity of them.

In many Japanese families, children are named by numbers. The most common are the classic male names Ichirō (一郎), Jirō (二郎), Saburō (三郎), Shirō (四郎), and Gorō (五郎) for, respectively, the first, second, third, fourth, and fourth sons. fifth. There are also many Japanese whose name ends in one of those already mentioned, such as Shin'ichirō, Eiichirō or Ryūzaburō. Another example is Isoroku Yamamoto, a Japanese naval commander from World War II: Isoroku is written 五 十六 and means 'fifty-six', since that was the age of his father when he was born.

Likewise, the Japanese islands of Kyūshū (九州 'nine provinces') and Shikoku (四国 'four countries') have their origins in the names of numbers.

The origin of the word yakuza (the Japanese mafia) is unknown, but it is widely believed that it comes from ya 'eight', ku 'nine', za 'three', since eight, nine and three, or twenty points, is the worst hand in the hanafuda card game.

Related Topics

• Japanese language
• Japanese superstitions
• Jōyō kanji