Nihongo 101

いち、に、さん

Sorry I've been MIA for a while but I've been super busy with school work! I don't understand why the IB curriculum waits until the end of the year to have everything due.... Anyhow I'm going to do simple and basic counting in this chapter which, yes, is boring. However, I was out and about today and it dawned on me that numbers are actually handy in life. So in addition to the basic counting in this chapter, I'll go over basic counters as well. I'll explain more about that later. Let's get started!

Counting is super easy if you can get the first ten numbers memorized, which aren't hard. I'll explain why some numbers have 2 versions later.

One- いち i-chi
Two- に ni
Three- さん sa-n
Four (2 versions)- し shi よん yo-n
Five-ご go
Six-ろく ro-ku
Seven-しち shi-chi なな na-na
Eight-はち ha-chi
Nine-きゅう kyu-u
Ten-じゅう jyu-u

So the numbers 4,7 have two versions. I'm going to be straight up honest and say that I don't know the real reason why. My parents told me it's a superstitious thing where the versions し and しち are bad. So there's another version to use. However as you will find out later on in this chapter, you have to use that version in some cases.

Now this is where counting is a bit different than English. I'll give eleven as an example. In Japanese we basically say ten plus 1. JYU-ICHI. This is the same for every number.

Eleven- じゅういち jyu-u-i-chi
Twelve-じゅうに jyu-u-ni
Thirteen-じゅうさん jyu-u-San
Fourteen-じゅうし Jyu-u-shi
じゅうよん jyu-u-yo-n
Fifteen-じゅうご jyu-u-go
Sixteen-じゅうろく jyu-u-ro-just
Seventeen-じゅうしち Jyu-u-shi-chi じゅうなな jyu-u-na-na
Eighteen-じゅうはち jyu-u-ha-chi
Nineteen-じゅうきゅう jyu-u-kyu

Now that we've come to twenty, we do the same as eleven. Except this time instead of ten plus one, we do two plus ten for twenty. So にじゅう ni-jyu-u. I'm not going to count anymore because it becomes repetitive. Basically go back to the tens and just replace Jyu with nijyu and you'll be counting you're 20s. If you want to count 30s, replace nijyu with sanjyu. So on and so forth.

So next I'll talk about months. In Japanese, we call our months by numbers. So January is month one.

Month- がつ ga-tsu
January- いちがつ i-chi-ga-tsu
February- にがつ ni-ga-tsu
March- さんがつ sa-n-ga-tsu
April- しがつ shi-ga-tsu
May- ごがつ go-ga-tsu
June- ろくがつ ro-ku-ga-tsu
July- しちがつ shi-chi-ga-tsu
August- はちがつ ha-chi-ga-tsu
September-くがつ ku-ga-tsu
October- じゅうがつ jyu-ga-tsu
November- じゅういちがつ jyu-i-chi-ga-tsu
December- じゅうにがつ jyu-ni-ga-tsu

So just like the months, we say our days a tad bit differently. Similarly, we add the word "day" after each date. Only the day 1-10 and 20 are different. Every other fay would be the same as regular counting and then just add the word "day."

Day- にち ni-chi
1- ついたち tsu-i-ta-chi
2- ふつか fu-tsu-ka
3-みっか mi-ka
4-よっか yo-ka
5-いつか i-tsu-ka
6-むいか mu-i-ka
7-なのか na-no-ka
8-ようか yo-u-ka
9-ここのか ko-ko-no-ka
10-とおか to-oo-ka
20-はつか ha-tsu-ka

Next, we will count people. Only one person, and two people is different. I'll count up to ten but really just like the days you say a number and add the word "people" afterwords.

People- ひと hi-to( non-plural) にん (plural) ni-n
1 person- ひとりhi-to-ri
2 people- ふたり fu-ta-ri
3 people- さんにん sa-n-ni-n
4 people- よんにん yo-n-ni-n
5 people- ごにん go-ni-n
6 people- ろくにん ro-ku-ni-n
7 people- ななにん na-na-ni-n
8 people- はちにん ha-chi-ni-n
9 people- くにん ku-ni-n
10 people- じゅうにん jyu-ni-n

So thats all I'm going to do for this chapter. I will more than likely have a counting continual chapter somewhere in the future. Also, I was thinking of making another book for people who want to learn kanji. Comment and let me know what you think of that! As always, all feedback is greatly accepted.