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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What is the correct syntax for large numbers in kanji?
Say I was trying to write the number 3,476,521,893,421 in kanji. How would I go about this? My guess was 三万四千七百六十五億二千百八十九万三千四百二十一 but it looks really wrong to me because it feels too Western to be ...
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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】
...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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Where does the phrase Ichikabachika (一か八か) come from?
According to the Japanese dictionary, it means "sink or swim", "do or die", or "high stakes", but I can't figure out the etymology.
The literal meaning appears to be "one or eight". So does it ...
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How is「第3位を四捨五入」deconstructed to mean "round up to 2 decimal places"?
小数第２位未満に端数が生じた場合は、小数第３位を四捨五入する
I initially translated this sentence to:
If a fraction with less than 2 decimal places is generated, round off to 3 decimal places.
So: 2.1 ≈ 2.100
It felt somewhat ...
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What do you use for a general-purpose counter when there are more that 10?
I've seen multiple language books, videos, etc. refer to this great, wonderful, magnificent general-purpose counter known as つ. The problem? I've also seen multiple source say that つ doesn't work ...
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Are ～つ and ～り the only two counters that can occur with the native Japanese numbers (ひと～, ふた～, etc)?
Please go easy on me if this seems too basic and obvious, I'm a beginner.
I always had the impression that there were counters that went with the native Japanese numbers and counters that went with ...
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Does 一二三 mean "1 2 3" or "123"?
Is it possible, without any context, to tell whether 一二三 means "one, two, three" or "one hundred twenty-three"?
In English, this kind of ambiguity would be removed by adding spaces between each digit:...
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Are there native Japanese numbers greater than 10? What use are they?
Most people who've taken a Japanese 101 class know the 10 native Japanese numbers (一つ、二つ・・・十). It's always seemed odd that a system would stop at 10 when so many things in life need larger numbers. ...
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Using 次 as a counter
In cases such as [第二次全世界戦争]{だいにじぜんせかいせんそう} or [第二次]{だいにじ}スーパーロボット[大戦]{たいせん}, is [次]{じ} effectively just acting the way a number followed by st/nd/rd/th would in English?
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How to say "Episode 22", "Chapter 22", "Act 22", etc?
I just wanted to make sure that my understanding is correct.
When saying Chapter 22, Act 22, or Episode 22 (basically parts of a larger piece), it normally starts with 第22 (or 第[number]) and then the ...
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Confusion about 一千億 and 一千兆
I recently created a web app called Kazu which aims to help speakers of Japanese and English learn to read numbers in both languages.
I found a web page which said that 'for numbers over 1万, "1000" ...
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What is the correct way of saying "third" in different contexts?
What would be the correct way of saying "third" in the following contexts:
Chronologically (This is the third time this happens)
Ranked (I am the third best player in the world)
Other? Maybe other ...
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Reading of 三十四日 [duplicate]
Is 三十四日 read さんじゅうよっか, in analogy with 四日, 十 四日, 二十四日, or is it read さんじゅうよんにち?
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How do you punctuate phone numbers in Japanese?
Given the phone number in English:
(012) 345-6789
how do you write this in Japanese? Is it:
（０１２）３４５－６７８９
or:
０１２・３４５・６７８９
or somewhere in between? My personal research suggests the ...
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Reading of 組 as a Counter Word With Numbers
I'm confused about how to pronounce a word such as 一組. Are Japanese or Chinese numbers used when using 組 as a counter, and if the former how does it change phonetically?
For example, jisho.org lists ...
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In this example, should the number 4 be read し or よん?
Recently, on another question, I left a comment where I said I thought １・２・３・４ might be pronounced イチニーサンヨン. I was quickly corrected by another user, who said the following:
AFAIK, 1,2,3,4 is ...
user1478
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Should I use On reading or Kun reading for numbers?
I've just started to learn Japanese, and I've been looking at the jōyō kanji. Most of the words have on reading and kun reading. I was wondering, which one is most popular and when should I use one ...
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Do people say じゅういち or いちいち when saying 11?
I heard this sentence. 仕事はひまでしたが、うちでよるいちいちまでレポートを書いています。
I looked up いちいち and it could mean 11 or one-by-one or separately. I'm guessing this in sentence it's saying 11. However, I'm wondering if ...
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Is 千{せん} a "current" number construct?
The reason why I ask this question is because of the pattern I've seen with Japanese numbers. Once you have to repeat a number to describe itself, you get a new unit. For example, 十十 = 百, 百百 = 万, 万万 = ...
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Horizontal writing in the middle of vertical writing
My character dictionary is written in vertical style. In this dictionary, columns of text are sometimes divided into two smaller columns, which are read right-then-left. I've read that this is ...
user1478
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Range of numbers
How would one express a range of numbers regarding an action?
Example: I usually study anywhere between 2 to 4 hours a day.
Would the からーまで grammar structure be appropriate here?
一日に普段２から４時間までを勉強する。...
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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・...
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Counters In Japanese
I'm a super beginner in Japanese, so excuse me if this question is really simple. Or stupid.
As an exercise, sometimes I count up the things on nearby desks or tables and try to list them in Japanese,...
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How to know what Okurigana signify? [closed]
For example, the kanji for "one" has a kun reading of "hito(tsu)." I looked it up and found that it's the difference between "one" and "one thing," but how could you have known that without ...
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How to say 24 divided by 8 equals 3
Pretty sure you have to use 割 but I don't know which pronunciation to use and how to say "equals" in this context.
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Can you say "half hour" or must you say "30 minutes"?
I know that to say an hour and a half you can say 一時間半, but is it possible to express simply half an hour even though the counter comes before 半? Or would you just have to say 三十分?
If both ways are ...
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Numbers and Counters
I am still in a very early stage in learning Japanese, and just I have just learnt some numbers and my first counter words, such as the ones for telling time and まい.
Do you ever use "regular" numbers ...
JNat♦
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Is there a logic behind the different endings when counting things in Japanese
So far I don't see any logic to it. It seems like it's just something you have to memorize, or is there a trick that I'm missing.
Update
To clarify, I'm not so much questioning the existence of the ...
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How do you say multiples of some number?
On a specification about a data. The valid value must be multiples of 10 (10, 20, 30, ...)
How do you state that in Japanese. I saw on a document that it is written as
Xは10,20,30・・のように10飛で付番する
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Listing using ひとつ?
I learned from Nihongoresources that:
An interesting note is on the "number of problems" I mentioned; while in English you would list problems (or rules, or whatever) as "First, ....., second, ........
Flaw♦
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How do you read zeros in abbreviated years? (i.e. ０３年)
I came across ０３年度 and ０９年度, and while the meaning is clear I didn't know the actual way of reading it. My first reaction was ゼロさんねんど, but I have no way of checking if that's right. I thought it might ...
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Why the mixture of *on* and *kun* readings of numbers?
One thing that always puzzled me was why some terms and names that are based on numbers will mix the on and kun readings. I never really understood the rules for that, but it occurs to me that there ...
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Reading of years
Years (Gregorian) can be read out in English:
A – two digits at a time;
B – each digit separately;
C – full reading of the number.
For example:
2012:
"Twenty twelve";
"Two zero ...
Flaw♦
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Reading fractions
In Japanese (and other East Asian languages), the denominator of a fraction is read as a part of the modifier to the numerator:
3分の5
'five that was divided by three'
'five thirds'
This ...
user458
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Prefixing `一` to numbers
It seems to me that 千 is exceptional in having it prefixed with 一.
As for 一, 十, 百, they work together with 千 to describe the numbers from 1 to 9999, so they compete with one another, or are ...
user458
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What are the ゴロ番, and how do they work? [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
Rules for slang of Japanese numbers
They seem to be some form of replacing kana sounds with numbers to spell things with numbers. Are these actually used anywhere "real"? or ...
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When a number is written in western numerals, how do you say them?
Someone has said this in my manga.
まず！我らの使命は２つ！！
Does he actually say "two" or "に"? If the latter, why not use 二? I don't see 二つ as being any different.
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How to read words like テスト with ordinal numbers?
Consider this:
テスト１, テスト２, テスト３ etc. (Taken from my exercise books. The tests are labelled as such up to 30)
(Question) Should numbers that are used with loanwords like テスト be read with いち, に, さん ...
Flaw♦
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壱, 弐, 参 vs 一, 二, 三
Can you tell me the difference between 壱 and 一, 弐 and 二, 参 and 三?
Do these pairs have the same meaning? If yes, why do we use different Kanji? If no, what is the difference in their meanings?
Can ...
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は can mean "at least?" [duplicate]
Can は mean "at least" in some situations?
For example, 10回は＝"at least 10 times?"
How does this work?
This is an example:
美味しかったぁ。腹いっぱい。今日のところはジャスミン茶は諦めよう。何回もドリンクバー行くの恥ずかしいし。...
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The first: 第一 vs 一番 vs 第一番
What are differences among 第一, 一番 and 第一番, all of which seem to mean "the first" in English? Are any of them more suitable for some specific scenarios than the others (e.g. 安全第一 but 世界で一番)?
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Are the usage of 上 and 下 as labels only limited to items that come in pairs of two?
I have some untranslated mangas that come in pairs of two, and each of them is labeled with 上 or 下 to denote which is the first volume and which is the second. I'm wondering if these labels are only ...
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Can counter words also be nouns?
According to people I've asked, and this page, if I pay 20 Australian dollars for my meal, it seems I say ni ju doru (20-ドル), and that ni ju-en doru (20-えん-ドル) would be ungrammatical - "dollar" acts ...
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Differences between 度 and 回 when counting occurrences
What are the differences between using 度 and 回 when used to count number of occurrences?
For example:
そんなことは一度もしたことがない
そんなことは一回もしたことがない
Are there any restrictions on what kind of actions referred ...
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How to read the X in 5X4間?
A book about architecture I'm trying to read (it's a bit of a slog what with the technical jargon and such) contained this description of a temple building: 二重、初重５X4間、裳階 （もこし） つき、上重４X3間. So it's two ...
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Reading a number range [duplicate]
I have a bottle of 洗顔料(facial soap), and the instructions are:
ご使用量の目安 ポンプ１～２回 (use about 1 to 2 pumps)
If I were to read 1~2 aloud, how would I do it?
Flaw♦
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When to read 一人 and 二人 as いちにん and ににん?
WWWJDIC lists いちにん and ににん as alternative readings of 一人 {ひとり} and 二人 {ふたり}, but I can't recall anywhere I heard those readings except when counting more than 10 people for example 三十一人 {さんじゅういちにん}. ...
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Temperature abbreviations?
A certain dialog in my book has a man describing the symptoms of his cold to the doctor. It reads thus:
医者：熱はありますか。
患者：はい、きのうから。夕べはぞくぞく寒気がしたので、高熱が出るんじゃないかとひやひやしたんですが、今のところ７度８分【なな・ど・はち・ぶ】...
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