Hot answers tagged numbers
19
The はた there is part of the same series of Japanese readings for numbers as ひとつ、ふたつ、みっつ and so on. Where the ち comes from - that I do not know. It also makes an appearance in some other common words, such as 二十日（はつか）, although in a slightly mangled form.
There are readings for the tens after that as well - for instance 三十（みそ） makes an appearance in words ...
18
It's perfectly fine to use only half-width arabic numbers.
2009年6月30日
However, there are other rules in operation, coming from various time in the history of writing and printing:
A. Don't use arabic numbers at all - maybe seen in formal documents:
二千九年六月三十日
B. Half-width for two-digit numbers, otherwise full-width - mostly in printed materials:
...
16
Your book is correct. When talking about human body temperature, 三十 is often omitted, probably because it is obvious. While there is nothing wrong with saying 37度8分 (37.8 degrees Celsius), it is often abbreviated to 7度8分. Even 37度 (37 degrees Celsius) without a fractional part sometimes becomes 7度.
You cannot abbreviate the temperature when it is 40 ...
15
We normally say [三十分]{さんじゅっぷん}. Some people say [半時間]{はんじかん}, but I think it's only used in Kansai area.
参考に・・→ OKWave「半時間って方言ですか」
P.S.
I'm from Kyoto but actually I've never noticed any of my friends say 半時間... Most of them are in/from Kyoto, Osaka, or Shiga. I think it's more used by older people (probably in Osaka?), because the only two people I can ...
13
What I can think of is Japanese numbers are using when registration of house, family registrations, and some contracts.
But they used 壱 弐 弐 拾 萬 instead of ー 二 三 十 万 on those kinds of registrations, contracts to prevent obvious modifications. And according to trade law, session 2, No. 48 「壱、弐、参、拾」 are mandatory.
Old books using those Japanese numbers a ...
12
From experience, I find Japanese people having lots of trouble converting between Japanese and Gregorian calendar years. I regularly surprise people with my ability to do that as follows (Japanese calendar years are often represented with an alphabet character like S or H.):
Showa Era (1925 to 1989)
Subtract 1900 (e.g. 1976 - 1900 = 76)
Subtract 25 (e.g. ...
10
よん is a 訓読み(kunyomi) reading of 4 and し is a 音読み(onyomi).
なな is a kunyomi reading of 7 and しち is a onyomi.
To make a long story short kunyomi is a native Japanese pronunciation and onyomi are pronunciation that were derived from classical Chinese.
In the case of numbers shi and shichi (onyomi) is used when you are counting things. For example, ichi ni ...
9
For counting a number of occurrences 回 and 度 are interchangeable with small numbers. Somewhere around 4 (the line is quite vague), 度 becomes uncommon, and by the time you get to 6, 回 is pretty much the only one used. (Naturally, 度 can be used with any number for counting degrees, as noted in Azeworai's informative answer.)
9
That's called 語呂合わせ and you could find full article at Wikipedia.
Quoted from Wikepedia
1 : いち、い、ひとつ、ひと
2 : に、ふたつ、ふた、ふ、つ（英語から）、じ
3 : さん、さ、みっつ、みつ、み
4 : よん、よ、よっつ、し、ふぉ（英語から）、ほ
5 : ご、こ、い、いつつ、いつ
6 : ろく、ろ、むっつ、むつ、む
7 : しち、ななつ、なな、な
8 : はち、は、ぱあ、やっつ、やつ、や、やあ
9 : きゅう、きゅ、く、ここのつ、ここの、こ
0 :
...
8
The article at Wikipedia covers the common ones as well as a decent number of extended ones, and lists the exceptions for days, people, etc. as well as rendaku and number word changes (e.g. 300->san*bya*ku, 4:00-> *yo*ji).
8
The number kanji are included on the list of first grade kanji that all Japanese children, theoretically, should know by they are in the second grade of elementary school. The other kanji you list (except for 日, but they may not cover that reading) are at higher reading levels. It's likely that they made an editorial decision that, well, pretty much any ...
8
Usually when you count, you use よん for '4' and なな for '7'. That applies to when you count down.
じゅう きゅう はち なな ろく ご よん さん に いち
However, in some situations, pronouncing a certain sequence of numbers became so frequent end became a fixed expression. In that case, '4' and '7' may be pronounced し and しち, respectively. That includes a situation of counting ...
8
I think you are making a big miskate. As for ５X4間, you interpret it as 'five rooms by four', but it is not clear what that means, and probably that is wrong. 間 is a traditional unit for length. It is approx the long length of a tatami (about 1.8m). ５X4間 means a ５間 by 4間 rectangle.
8
Agree with TsuyoshiIto's answer, but would like to complement the answer to Q2.
The Japanese years are called 元号 or 年号.
There is a law that states that, in official contracts, if the date is written both in 元号 and some other system, then the 元号 description overrides the other in case of contradiction or inconsistency. For this reason, in official document, ...
8
Verbs and い-adjectives may be inflected with different okurigana
For example, the verb 歩く may be inflected to form:
polite: 歩きます
negative: 歩かない
polite negative: 歩きません
past tense: 歩いた
past polite: 歩きました
negative past: 歩かなかった
negative past polite: 歩きませんでした
te form: 歩いて
desiderative: 歩きたい
volitional: 歩こう
polite volitional (cohortative): 歩きましょう
plain negative ...
8
It is usual to say AからB without まで when you use a range in place of a number, and you repeat units. Therefore, “for two to four hours” is 2時間から4時間. 2時間[乃至]{ないし}4時間 is a very formal way to state the same thing, as ssb stated.
Your sentence has a few other incorrect or unnatural points.
As oldergod stated, the usage of を is incorrect. The duration of an ...
7
This may be obvious but not has been stated explicitly on this page: in vertical writing, kanji numerals are much more preferred than Arabic numerals. Moreover, in vertical writing, we sometimes use the positional system with kanji, especially for large numbers; that is, 六万五千七百四円 is sometimes written as 六五七〇四円.
7
In Japanese, four-digit Gregorian years are read only as single numbers. Therefore, 1988年 is せんきゅうひゃくはちじゅうはちねん. Reading the number 1988 as いっせんきゅうひゃくはちじゅうはち (and therefore reading 1988年 as いっせんきゅうひゃくはちじゅうはちねん) with いっせん instead of せん is acceptable but I think that it is non-standard. Neither “じゅうきゅう はちじゅうはちねん” nor “いち きゅう はち はちねん” is correct. The latter ...
7
Your question assumes that people typically learn the kanji, for instance 歩, and then go on to try to figure out what extra meaning the okurigana impart on the kanji -- for instance, the addition of く creates a verb 歩く "to walk", and the addition of いた to 歩 creates the past tense verb "walked".
This is not the typical approach.
The typical approach is to ...
6
Some theories from http://gogen-allguide.com/ha/hatachi.html
Please forgive and correct any mistakes I made.
Theory: はた means 20. For example: 二十歳 はたち、二十人 はたとり、二十年 はたとせ。
ち (個)is a counter for the ひと、ふた、み counting system.
Theory (folklore): The 旗乳 (はたち)folktale. During the Warring States period, a young soldier who turned 20 years old wore a banner (旗 ...
6
There are entire dictionaries for this (数え方の辞典). Here's a link to a whole bunch.
個 (ko) is the most commonly used one. Japanese people use it on almost everything, including stuff that has its own counter, partly because it's sometimes annoying for even them to think of the proper 数詞.
+ 台 (dai) for machines like cars and computers
+ 足 (soku) for pairs of ...
6
I am not sure if there is any rule either (sounds like too recent a problem to have a strong tradition attached to it), but I thought this comment made (on the original Stack Overflow) by a native Japanese was interesting:
I'm a Japanese, and I loathe full
width numerals! Please just use the
half-width numerals within Japanese
sentences. All you ...
6
This is similar with bdonlan's answer, but in my understanding,
On first grade, they learned both 三, and 日 kanjis, but only pronounced 日 as "ひ" in "Sun", but not as "か", and also there is some probability that no 日付 related terms learn on first grade like ついたち「一日」、ふつか「二日」、みっか「三日」, ... yet.
So, may be that's the reason why they only put ふりがな on 日, but not ...
6
上 - 中 - 下 is common for trilogies, yes.
Then, no the nouns 長男、 次男、 三男 are fixed and show the rank.
Unlike a story which comes in two parts, and where you (as the author) know that there will two or three parts, you don't know how may children you'll have.
Moreover, it would be quite a pain for an absolute naming/ranking convention to be relative!
6
第一番, 第一, 一番: noun 'number one'. 一 still retains its meaning as a number, so it can be replaced by the number character: 第1番, 第1, 1番.
交響曲第一番/第一/一番/第1番/第1/1番
'symphony no. 1'
第一, 第1 can be used as a prefix.
第一/第1交響曲
'symphony no. 1'
第一: noun 'has priority'. 一 does not retain the meaning 'one', and cannot be replaced by '1'.
安全が第一
'safety ...
6
I suppose we can trace the East Asian system back to China. In the Chinese text Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art 九章算術 (dating to 2nd C BCE at the latest if I understand correctly), we see this question and answer:
今有十八分之十二。問、約之得幾何？答曰、三分之二。
This looks like a likely precursor for the Japanese X分のY notation, with 之 simply translated の (which is of course ...
6
This isn't a dumb question at all! For the most part, you do have to modify the number, you can't just say it by itself. You can't ask for just two bottles of beer, you have to add the counter (ほん) or use ふたつ.
One scenario where you can just use the numbers is if you're just counting for the sake of counting. Like, for example, you're counting jumping jacks ...
5
In your example, context wise is the same they're both correct because they're counting an occurrence- both words can be used for counting occurrences.
度 can be used for counting degrees in angles and temperature whereas 回 cannot.
回 is more often used for rounds and revolutions whereas 度 is not used.
To be explicit, my dictionary(midori) categorises ...
5
Does he actually say "two" or "に"?
As @Tsuyoshi said, 2つ is read ふたつ
If the latter, why not use 二? I don't see ニつ as being any different.
It's a manga, as you said, and it's very common to have a lot of crappy written Japanese in them (special readings, mix of English, neologisms…).
You don't see 2つ being different from 二つ, but the author did. ...
5
I believe the question you're trying to ask is "why are there counter words in Japanese?" (or perhaps "why do I have to learn all these counter words?"). It does seem kind of strange coming from English, where you can just say a number, to where you have to start using a number plus different words depending on the size/shape/other characteristic of an ...
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