Questions tagged [numbers]

数字. The various spoken and written forms of words and characters covering digits, numbers, numerals, including derived forms such as ordinals.

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3 votes
1 answer
69 views

Is 77 ななじゅうなな or しちじゅうしち here?

One of the sentences I found in an online paper and put into my Anki deck is 77年前【ねんまえ】、原爆【げんばく】はなぜ長崎【ながさき】に落【お】とされたのか? Why was the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki 77 years ago? How is 77 read? If I ...
4 votes
2 answers
152 views

Number+counter when NOT used as an adverb

Following up from this question, I'm curious how Japanese people naturally describe the numbers of things when NOT used like an adverb. Do they still use 「thing + number + counter」, just like when ...
3 votes
2 answers
239 views

All the ways of writing numbers

I couldn't find any sites where I could get a comprehensive list of possible number writing formats. My question is mainly about mixing and matching different ideas I've seen online. For general, ...
3 votes
2 answers
139 views

expressing fractions of people?

One pronounces "two people" as 二人【ふたり】, but what happens with "2.7 people"? Is the following reading of this sentence correct? このうち[2.7]{にてんなな}人【にん】に1人【ひとり】が「重【おも】い荷物【にもつ】を背負【せお】...
7 votes
3 answers
8k views

Is B2F, B1F, 1F, 2F, ... wasei-eigo?

While visiting Tokyo, I noticed that most levels were indicated by B2F, B1F, 1F, 2F, ... . This doesn't look like the Romaji for -kai or -gai counter-words, which I assume would be chika ni-kai, ...
8 votes
3 answers
2k views

Structure: thing を numeral (or numeral and counter) ください

My first question is, are counters always required when counting things? Can't I just slap a number in front of the noun? For example,「いちりんご」for one apple? Secondly, in Lesson 5 of the Japanese For ...
26 votes
5 answers
5k views

Is there a reason why numbers in Japanese are delimited into blocks of four?

As I understand, Japanese numbers are divided into blocks of four, so while we would think of the number 89123889 as 89,123,889, in Japan they would think of it as 8912,3889 (八千九百十二万三千八百八十九). So ...
5 votes
2 answers
2k views

What is this 10^40 thing?

While checking out "正" (as in 正坐, specifically) I found that apparently one of the associated meaning would be 10^40 (i.e. 10 elevated at the 40th power). Example -taken from Tangorin.com: sei 【正】 ...
1 vote
0 answers
65 views

Is there any practical use of the word 正{せい} meaning 10^40 (ten thousand undecillion) ? Where did it come from? [duplicate]

I came across this definition of 正{せい} and I can't fathom what purpose such a large number (10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000) could serve, it looks strange to me that there is ...
1 vote
2 answers
148 views

Random people names in Japanese? いちろう vs じろう vs さぶろうvs しろう

I'm just trying to learn Japanese. I ran into this. It is somewhat similar to what I've seen in English where we refer to random people as "Tom, Dick, and Harry" or Spanish where it is "...
6 votes
2 answers
856 views

How do you read out numbers in scientific notation in Japanese?

For example, "5 * 10^80" would be said as "5 times 10 to the power of 80" in English. When translating to Japanese, would I translate all of these operations literally or is there ...
0 votes
1 answer
107 views

Can 一つ be used as a motivation or pump-up phrase, like a kiai?

In the Rockman X4 manga, the Reploid military of the Repliforce rebels against humanity for independence after being falsely suspected of involvement in a city's destruction and ordered to turn in ...
0 votes
1 answer
291 views

How often are numbers written in katakana?

I'm working on a program that convert numbers written in kanji into their arabic numbers counterparts and one of the text I've been given to test my program contains numbers written in katakana. Most ...
4 votes
1 answer
542 views

How is the number 0.01 spoken in Japanese?

How is the number 0.01 correctly spoken in Japanese? I always thought it is ゼロてんゼロいち, but Google Translate and DeepL give different readings: ゼロポイントゼロワン and ゼロ点ゼロ1
0 votes
1 answer
197 views

Writing of decimal numbers with Kanji?

As an example, I want to write the decimal number 3.78 Is it common to write it as 三.七八 with Kanji? What about 点? Is 三点七八 being used?
1 vote
0 answers
3k views

In Demon Slayer, what are the "upper" and "lower" rank words and numbers? [duplicate]

The Demon Slayer show has these inscriptions on eyes that mean "upper 6" or "lower 12" etc. I haven't seen these "upper" and "lower" rank words in my studies. ...
8 votes
1 answer
932 views

How many things? AとBがふたつ

「その上{うえ}には熱帯魚{ねったいぎょ}の水槽{すいそう}と何{なに}かのトロフィーがふたつのっている。」 This is a quote from "The wind-up bird and Tuesday's Women." How many fish tanks are there? How many trophies?
3 votes
2 answers
282 views

gemination orthography

In this sentence ミサイルは高【たか】さ100kmより低【ひく】い所【ところ】を東【ひがし】に750km飛【と】びました The missile flew 750 kilometers east at a height lower than 100 kilometers. appearing here https://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/easy/...
4 votes
3 answers
1k views

Why some tutorials teach writing Japanese numbers with Hiragana when they are actually written with Katakana (as on-yomi) in dictionaries?

I've just began learning some Kanji by looking-up how the numbers are written (and read) and suddenly bumped into confusion while watching some tutorials. I can hear the tutors pronouncing a number in ...
2 votes
1 answer
224 views

How do you say "n out of m" with 目?

I'm writing an application which features pagination, and I would like to translate it into Japanese. I have the following English text: Page 2 / 115 Before adding pagination, I would have ...
38 votes
2 answers
7k views

Why is 二十歳 pronounced はたち?

二十歳 is a (to me) bizarre exception to the usual number+さい rule for discussing age. Is this rooted in 20 being the Japanese age of majority? Added: To be more specific: why isn't it pronounced にじゅうさい ...
6 votes
1 answer
658 views

Pronunciation of 800 / 八百

A Japanese textbook labels the pronunciation of 800 / 八百 as はっぴゃく, but elsewhere labels the pronunciation of 5,800 / 五千八百 as ごせんはっびゃく (emphases added). Should the first syllable of 百 be ぴゃ or びゃ ...
1 vote
0 answers
68 views

Anything special with the number 20? [duplicate]

When counting, the number 20 is always quite different than other numbers. For example, you have 二十日 (はつか) and 二十歳 (はたち). Where does this difference come from? Is the number 20 special in Japan?
3 votes
1 answer
116 views

Counting number of numbers

So I'm a Japanese learner just coming across how to count stuff like cars, or buildings, or bottles, or anything! But I was just wondering, is there any counter to count numbers? For example, you ...
2 votes
1 answer
323 views

Kanji for ordinal numbers

I am beginning to study kanji and while reading a wiki I noticed only the ordinal numbers first (初), second (乙), and third (丙) are listed. Which brings me to ask whether there are symbols for fourth, ...
3 votes
1 answer
102 views

What is the grammatical function of "が" in this context of counting people?

In an anime I've been watching, the protagonist goes to a village where one of his friends came from, where all the people in the village have the same hair color as his friend. (with "〇" ...
19 votes
1 answer
3k views

How to read: the "~" (tilde) in "3~4 行"

How should I read the "~" mark that stands for range, as described in the title? I saw this in the following sentence: 3~4行ごとに1行あけると読みやすい。
0 votes
0 answers
55 views

Double/ordinal number expression [duplicate]

I would like to know the pronunciation for these following expressions: i) (1, 2日), (6, 7日), (7, 8日), (8, 9日), (8, 10日), (18~20日) ii) 第2日, 第3日, 第4日, 第5日, 第6日, 第7日, 第8日, 第9日, 第10日, 第20日
0 votes
1 answer
162 views

Native or Sino Japanese numbers?

When listing steps (step 1, 2, 3, etc) do you use the Native Japanese counter or the Sino Japanese counter?
1 vote
2 answers
242 views

Can I pronounce 十三日 as じゅうみっか?

I wonder if both prounciations of 十三日 are accepted? じゅうさんにち じゅうみっか The reasons I am asking are these: Windows IME seems to accept it 十四日 is pronouncecd as じゅうよっか, matching the pronunciation of 四日, ...
0 votes
2 answers
416 views

Can I say na, nano, nanu as "seven" instead of nana?

On my kanji dictionary, below 七, there are several kunyomi among the common ones (nana, nanatsu), they are: na, nano, nanu; it's written that they are nouns themselves and it's the same for the other ...
3 votes
1 answer
93 views

How to pronounce "2" in はやぶさ2 (spacecraft / mission)

I'm a beginner. I was watching news about JAXA's はやぶさ2 mission and I think it is pronounced はやぶさ つ. Can someone please confirm that "2" is pronounced "つ" and explain why.
0 votes
1 answer
361 views

Different ways of enumeration

Japanese seems to have multiple ways of enumerating sequences. The basic one is ordinal numbers: Arabic (Indian) numbers like in English: 1,2,3 classic Chinese numbers: 一、二、三 etc. special legal ...
5 votes
1 answer
627 views

Leaving away the 目 suffix for ordinal numbers

I've seen 「1ページ」 refer to "page 1" of e.g. a book. Wouldn't this technically mean "one page" and 「1ページ目」 be correct for "page 1"? Is leaving away the 目 when referring to ...
0 votes
0 answers
125 views

Non-universal counters and reading 7 and 9

Q1. Why are these counters like 人(にん), 日(にち) and 歳(さい) not universal? 人(にん) is impossible to be joined with 1(いち) or 2(に)? 日(にち) is impossible to be joined with 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 14, 20 or ...
10 votes
2 answers
468 views

Do we use odd day pronunciations outside of calendar ranges?

After reading @jkerian's comment in this post, I started thinking about this. Here's the comment in full: On a side note, all days ending in '4' are also irregular, and use ~よっか. So the 14th is じゅう・...
4 votes
3 answers
7k views

Are kanji typically used in times and dates?

Are kanji typically for numbers used in times and dates? For example, would "七" and "十五" in the first sentence, and "九" and "三" in the second sentence be normal Japanese? (I'm aware that the ...
6 votes
1 answer
378 views

Maths sentences: 足す and 掛ける

I noticed a lack of case marking particles in mathematical sentences: 1足す2は3である。 3掛ける4は12である。 足す and 掛ける are verbs, does subject and object analysis apply to this? Do they take on the ...
-3 votes
1 answer
159 views

Regarding 7日, 9日, and counting 40, 70, 90

If you convert "ななにち" or "しちにち", you can get a letter "㏦(IDEOGRAPHIC TELEGRAPH SYMBOL FOR DAY SEVEN). Doing "きゅうにち" or "くにち", you can get a letter "㏨(IDEOGRAPHIC TELEGRAPH SYMBOL FOR DAY NINE). When I ...
0 votes
1 answer
245 views

The day of the month

I've learned that the 1st to 10th day of the month is always read specially. However, when I converted these by using my computer typing "いちにち、ににち、さんにち、よんにち、ごにち、ろくにち、ななにち、はちにち、きゅうにち、じゅうにち、じゅうよんにち、...
1 vote
1 answer
106 views

How to say 一〇年 in a sentence [duplicate]

I see this structure a lot: まるで一〇年以上....... What does the 一〇 mean and how do I pronounce it? Is it いちまる?
1 vote
2 answers
581 views

What is the meaning of 七五三 in the sentence, 七五三のしゃしんです。

I was looking at the following sentence under a picture that I unfortunately cannot provide: 七五三のしゃしんです。 I believe the sentence reads "It's a picture of 753"... which doesn't make sense. I know ...
5 votes
2 answers
2k views

How would you refer to an apartment number?

I am currently working through みんなの日本語 (and still very new), in 第二課の会話 one character says "...408のサントスです。”, but in the audio the voice actor says what sounds like ”よんまるはちのサントスです". I would say 408 as "...
15 votes
2 answers
2k views

What is the correct expression of 10/20, 20/30, 30/40 etc?

On a news report, I heard the phrase 四五{しご}十{じゅう}メートル and it got me thinking about how to express other number approximations. Are the following correct? 10 or 20 meters じゅうにじゅうメートル 20 or 30 ...
0 votes
1 answer
119 views

What is independent form of numeral 10?

An old Dover grammar-book of Japanese shows it to be to (it has no kana but I assume it's と), but Wikipedia shows to̅ (とお). Which one is correct?
4 votes
2 answers
239 views

数詞 + も suitable location

How should I determine which place I need to locate 「数詞{すうし} + も」? From my text book example: 1: 毎年{まいとし}何百枚{なんびゃくまい}も年賀状{ねんがじょう}を出{だ}します 数詞も is now located in front of the noun 年賀状. 2: 卵{たまご}...
3 votes
1 answer
348 views

7色 vs 七色 for rainbow (7 colors vs 7 prismatic colors)

虹は7色だ。 Rainbow has 7 colors. There are 7 colors in rainbow. Question: how to pronounce 7色 to make meaning [7 colors]? Problem: 七色 is not [7 colors]. It is a special scientific term, meaning [7-...
1 vote
1 answer
354 views

What does 1500万0000円 mean on a price display?

I'm a bit confused by the price display in a sushi restaurant video, see https://youtu.be/V1g0yIBTDjQ?t=608 Do I misread the number or is this a joke (the video has an unusual cut there)? It shows ...
3 votes
3 answers
4k views

How do you say "some", "many", "a few", and "few" when referring to people?

So, of course, I know words like 多い, たくさん, 少ない, 少し, and 何+[counter]+か to express "many", "few", "a few", and "some" in most contexts. However, I have absolutely no idea what are the Japanese ...
9 votes
1 answer
3k views

How to read 24-hour clock format

There are a lot of topics on forums in what case Japanese people use 24-hour clock format. But I have never seen how it should be pronounced. It's not hard to say something like 8:05. This is common ...