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I understand that when a series of numbers in Japanese includes a decimal point each number is voiced individually with the decimal point pronounced as てん as in the following example:

9.76 = きゅうてんななろく

However, if I'm reading a series of digits which includes a counter that has a sound change in the final digit like if I wanted to say for example

5.6 minutes (5.6分）

how would I read this?

Would I pronounce it as ごてんろっぷん? Or would I simply ignore the sound change in 6 related to the counter word (in this case 分) and simply pronounce it as ごてんろくふん?

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Even if you read ６分 as ろくふん, it's ok. But ろっぷん is easier to pronounce and much more common. It's the same when it's used like 5.6分, which is usually ごーてんろっぷん.

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  • Why have you elongated 5 at ごー here?
    – istrasci
    Aug 24, 2015 at 15:19
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    To stabilize the numbers of morae and maintain a regular reading time. When reading a phone number aloud, for example, 5212 is read ごーにーいちにー.
    – naruto
    Aug 24, 2015 at 19:51
  • So it's like the aural equivalent of mono spaced numerals in typography? Cool.
    – rickster
    Aug 25, 2015 at 23:30

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