How to count in Japanese: numbers and counters made simple

Japanese numbers are wonderfully logical. Learn one to ten, and you can build every number up to 99 without learning anything new. The part that surprises learners is counters: little words you add when counting things. Here's how both work.

One to ten

Four, seven and nine have two readings. In everyday counting, people mostly use よん, なな and きゅう. The other readings turn up in fixed words, like times and dates (しちじ, 7 o'clock; くじ, 9 o'clock).

Building bigger numbers

Numbers above ten are built like a sum:

• 11 = じゅういち (10 + 1)
• 20 = にじゅう (2 × 10)
• 35 = さんじゅうご (3 × 10 + 5)
• 99 = きゅうじゅうきゅう

Then come the bigger units:

A few combine with a small sound change: 300 is さんびゃく (sanbyaku), 600 is ろっぴゃく (roppyaku), 800 is はっぴゃく (happyaku), 3,000 is さんぜん (sanzen) and 8,000 is はっせん (hassen).

The big difference: 万

English groups big numbers in thousands; Japanese groups them in ten-thousands. 10,000 is いちまん (one man), and 100,000 is じゅうまん ("ten man"). This matters for prices: 15,000 yen is いちまん ごせん えん.

Counters: the extra word for counting things

In English we say "two cups of tea" or "three sheets of paper". Japanese does this for almost everything: you add a counter to the number, and the counter depends on what you're counting.

You don't need dozens. These cover most everyday situations:

The つ counter is the beginner's best friend: ひとつ, ふたつ, みっつ, よっつ, いつつ, むっつ, ななつ, やっつ, ここのつ, とお. When you don't know the right counter for something, つ will usually be understood.

Notice that one and two people are irregular: ひとり, ふたり, then さんにん, よにん and so on.

Asking how many and how much