Japanese numbers are wonderfully regular: learn 1 to 10 and the pattern carries you to 99 with almost no new words. Here's the core, plus the two spots that trip people up.
1 to 10
| Number | Kanji | Reading |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 一 | ichi |
| 2 | 二 | ni |
| 3 | 三 | san |
| 4 | 四 | shi / yon |
| 5 | 五 | go |
| 6 | 六 | roku |
| 7 | 七 | shichi / nana |
| 8 | 八 | hachi |
| 9 | 九 | kyū / ku |
| 10 | 十 | jū |
Why 4, 7 and 9 have two readings
4 (shi) sounds like the word for "death," so yon is often preferred, especially out loud, in phone numbers and floors. 7 flips the other way: nana is the everyday choice over shichi (which can be misheard as ichi). 9 is usually kyū, with ku in some fixed contexts. When in doubt, yon, nana, kyū.
Counting to 100
This is the magic part. You just combine what you already know:
- 11 = 十一 (jū-ichi) → "ten-one"
- 20 = 二十 (ni-jū) → "two-ten"
- 34 = 三十四 (san-jū-yon) → "three-ten-four"
- 99 = 九十九 (kyū-jū-kyū) → "nine-ten-nine"
- 100 = 百 (hyaku)
No new vocabulary between 11 and 99: it's all tens and ones stacked together.
The catch: counter words
Here's where Japanese numbers get their reputation. To count things, you usually add a counter that depends on the shape of the thing: 〜個 (-ko) for small objects, 〜本 (-hon) for long things, 〜枚 (-mai) for flat things, 〜人 (-nin) for people. So "two apples" is ringo ni-ko, but "two people" is futari.
Don't let this stall you. When you're stuck, 〜個 (-ko) plus pointing gets you understood almost anywhere.
Seeing numbers in the wild
Prices, platform numbers, addresses, portion sizes: numbers are everywhere in Japan, and often in kanji (十, 百, 千). A camera translator turns those into figures you can read instantly: point Yomi at a price tag or a sign and it shows the English in place. Learn 1 to 10 here, and let the world drill the rest. Next, pick up how to say hello in Japanese and the phrases for travelers. Those same figures fill a Japanese restaurant menu, and once a price crosses into the thousands, how much is this in Japanese covers the part that actually trips people up.