Japanese Numbers: Count to 10,000, Plus the First 5 Counters

Japanese numbers have a reputation for being complicated, and the reputation comes from a real place. There are two counting systems, three numbers with two readings each, and a family of counter words that change how a number sounds depending on what you're counting. Look at all of that on one page and it's a lot. But almost nobody needs all of it at once, and the part you need first is small.

This guide sorts Japanese counting into the order you'll actually meet it. Ten sounds for 1–10. A rule, not a list, for 11–99. Three big-number words that reach 10,000 and beyond. Then the older system behind ひとつ (hitotsu) and ふたつ (futatsu), the five counters that cover prices, people, and orders, and the four sound changes that turn 300 into 三百さんびゃく (sanbyaku). Everything is written in kana with a romanized hint, so you can say it, not just recognize it.

One promise up front. Learn the ten sounds, the five counters in the table below, and the four sound changes. Do that and you can handle a convenience-store total, a restaurant headcount, and a menu order this week. Everything past that can wait until you meet it.

Japanese counts from one to ten like this: 一いち (ichi), 二に (ni), 三さん (san), 四よん (yon), 五ご (go), 六ろく (roku), 七なな (nana), 八はち (hachi), 九きゅう (kyuu), 十じゅう (juu). Say them out loud in order a few times before you read on. The rest of Japanese counting is built out of these ten sounds and very little else.

Two small notes. Zero is ゼロ (zero) in everyday speech, with the older 零れい (rei) surviving in a few set uses like 零度れいど (reido), zero degrees. And three of the ten — 4, 7, and 9 — have a second reading you'll hear in specific places. That's the next section, and it's the only real wrinkle in the first ten.

The short answer: when you're counting or saying a number on its own, use よん (yon), なな (nana), and きゅう (kyuu). The second readings — し (shi) for 4, しち (shichi) for 7, く (ku) for 9 — belong to the same Chinese-derived series as the other numbers. They remain the standard reading inside a set of fixed words.

The catch is that し (shi) sounds exactly like 死し (shi), death, and く (ku) like 苦く (ku), suffering. So in open speech よん (yon) and きゅう (kyuu) are preferred. なな (nana) is preferred for 7 as well, with the practical bonus that it can't be misheard as いち (ichi).

Where the second readings live: months and clock times, mostly. April is 四月しがつ (shigatsu), July is 七月しちがつ (shichigatsu), September is 九月くがつ (kugatsu). Four o'clock is 四時よじ (yoji) (a clipped よ (yo), without the ん (n)), seven o'clock is 七時しちじ (shichiji), nine o'clock is 九時くじ (kuji). Four people is 四人よにん (yonin); seven people can be either 七人しちにん (shichinin) or 七人ななにん (nananin). Everywhere else — phone numbers, prices, floors, counting objects — the defaults are safe: 四百よんひゃく (yonhyaku) (400), 七十ななじゅう (nanajuu) (70), 九階きゅうかい (kyuukai) (ninth floor).

You don't need to memorize when to switch. The fixed forms arrive as vocabulary — you learn 四月しがつ (shigatsu) as one word, the way you learned “April” — and the pattern settles in from examples. What you need right now is just the default, and the default is よん (yon)・なな (nana)・きゅう (kyuu).

Every number from 11 to 99 is built by saying the tens digit, then 十じゅう (juu), then the ones digit. No new words at all.

Eleven is 十一じゅういち (juuichi) (ten-one). Twenty is 二十にじゅう (nijuu) (two-ten). Twenty-one is 二十一にじゅういち (nijuuichi). Thirty-four is 三十四さんじゅうよん (sanjuuyon). Ninety-nine is 九十九きゅうじゅうきゅう (kyuujuukyuu). That's the whole system: learn 1–10, then stack.

Two things to notice. Ten in the tens place never becomes “one-ten” — 10 is just 十じゅう (juu), and 11 is 十一じゅういち (juuichi), not いち (ichi)-じゅう (juu)-いち (ichi). And in the tens, 4, 7, and 9 keep their default readings — 四十よんじゅう (yonjuu), 七十ななじゅう (nanajuu), 九十きゅうじゅう (kyuujuu) — so what you learned in the last section carries straight through.

A good first drill is your own phone number, digit by digit. It's ten sounds you already care about, and Japanese speakers read phone numbers digit by digit too.

Three words take you into the big numbers: 百ひゃく (hyaku) (100), 千せん (sen) (1,000), and 万まん (man) (10,000). They stack exactly the way 十じゅう (juu) did: 200 is 二百にひゃく (nihyaku), 5,000 is 五千ごせん (gosen), 380 is 三百八十さんびゃくはちじゅう (sanbyakuhachijuu), and 2026 is 二千二十六にせんにじゅうろく (nisennijuuroku). On their own, 100 and 1,000 are plain ひゃく (hyaku) and せん (sen), with no いち (ichi) in front. But 10,000 is always 一万いちまん (ichiman), with the いち (ichi). And 4, 7, and 9 keep their defaults here too: 四百よんひゃく (yonhyaku), 七千ななせん (nanasen), 九万きゅうまん (kyuuman).

The part that trips English speakers isn't the words, it's the grouping. English regroups every three digits — thousand, million, billion. Japanese regroups every four: 万まん (man) is 10,000, and everything up to 99,999,999 is expressed as some number of 万まん (man). So 100,000 isn't “hundred-thousand” but 十万じゅうまん (juuman) (ten ten-thousands), and 1,000,000 is 百万ひゃくまん (hyakuman) (a hundred ten-thousands). When you meet a large yen figure, split it four digits from the right and it reads itself.

A handful of these compounds change their sound. 300 is 三百さんびゃく (sanbyaku), 600 is 六百ろっぴゃく (roppyaku), 800 is 八百はっぴゃく (happyaku), 3,000 is 三千さんぜん (sanzen), and 8,000 is 八千はっせん (hassen). They look like exceptions to memorize. They're really four small rules, named below once the counters are on the table — because the same four rules explain the counters too.

Japanese has a second, older set of numbers: native Japanese words rather than Chinese-derived ones. It runs from one to ten — ひとつ (hitotsu) (1), ふたつ (futatsu) (2), みっつ (mittsu) (3), よっつ (yottsu) (4), いつつ (itsutsu) (5), むっつ (muttsu) (6), ななつ (nanatsu) (7), やっつ (yattsu) (8), ここのつ (kokonotsu) (9), とお (too) (10). Then it stops. From eleven on, counting switches to the 十一じゅういち (juuichi) series.

You'll use this set more than its size suggests. It's the everyday way to count things when you don't know — or don't need — a specific counter: ふたつ (futatsu) is “two of them,” full stop. It's what you say when ordering: point at the menu and say これをふたつ (korewofutatsu), “two of these.”

It's also hiding inside 一人ひとり (hitori) (one person) and 二人ふたり (futari) (two people). And it's how you ask “how many?” — いくつ (ikutsu), which as おいくつですか (oikutsudesuka) also politely asks someone's age. Learn these ten as a chant; they pay for themselves the first time you order.

A counter is a short word attached to a number that says what kind of thing you're counting. English does a little of this — “two sheets of paper,” “three head of cattle” — and Japanese does it for nearly everything. There are dozens. You need five to start, and each has one or two irregular spots worth knowing in advance.

人にん (nin) counts people, using the older words for one and two: 一人ひとり (hitori), 二人ふたり (futari), then 三人さんにん (sannin), 四人よにん (yonin), 五人ごにん (gonin), and on. つ (tsu) — or the more neutral 個こ (ko) — counts objects: みっつ (mittsu) or 三個さんこ (sanko) for three of something.

円えん (en) counts yen and is almost perfectly regular. The one wrinkle is that 4 yen is 四円よえん (yoen), and in practice you'll say 三百八十円さんびゃくはちじゅうえん (sanbyakuhachijuuen), 380 yen, far more often than 4 yen. 本ほん (hon) counts long, thin things — bottles, pens, umbrellas, and, a favorite learner surprise, trains and phone calls. 枚まい (mai) counts flat things — sheets of paper, tickets, plates, shirts, stamps.

Here they are side by side from one to ten, plus the “how many?” form for each. 円えん (en) is the exception: it behaves too well to need a row beyond 四円よえん (yoen). Screenshot this one. Once you can read the whole table aloud, the sound-change rules in the next section will already feel familiar.

Every irregular form in this article comes from four small changes, and none of them is random. They're what the mouth does when two sounds meet. Rule one: 1, 8, and 10 clip their last syllable into a small pause (っ ()). That happens before a counter beginning with a k, s, t, or h sound — 一個いっこ (ikko), 八千はっせん (hassen), 十本じゅっぽん (juppon). Six does the same before k and h — 六個ろっこ (rokko), 六百ろっぴゃく (roppyaku) — but not before s: 6,000 is 六千ろくせん (rokusen).

Rule two: after that clip, an h sound becomes p — 一本いっぽん (ippon), 六百ろっぴゃく (roppyaku), 八百はっぴゃく (happyaku), 十本じゅっぽん (juppon). Rule three: 3 and the question word 何なん (nan) (how many) turn a following h into b, and せん (sen) into ぜん (zen) — 三本さんぼん (sanbon), 三百さんびゃく (sanbyaku), 三千さんぜん (sanzen), 何本なんぼん (nanbon). Rule four: 4 drops its ん (n) before a few counters — 四人よにん (yonin), 四時よじ (yoji), 四円よえん (yoen). Now look back at the table: every unusual cell is one of these four.

You don't need to run these rules consciously. Most learners absorb them from a dozen example words, and the table above is built so those examples are already in front of you. Read it aloud a few times and さんぼん (sanbon) starts to sound right while さんほん (sanhon) starts to sound wrong.

Clock times and dates have a few more of their own — 四時よじ (yoji), 七時しちじ (shichiji), 九時くじ (kuji), and the first days of the month like 一日ついたち (tsuitachi) and 二日ふつか (futsuka). Those deserve their own field note, and that's where they live.

Prices are the first place Japanese numbers get real, because the clerk says the total out loud: 三百八十円になりますさんびゃくはちじゅうえんになります (sanbyakuhachijuuenninarimasu), “that comes to 380 yen.” Everything you need to catch it is in this article — a hundreds word with its sound change, a tens word, and 円えん (en). If the total goes by too fast, the register display shows it in Arabic numerals. The konbini field note walks through the rest of the counter script, so you know which line is the price and which is the bag question.

People come next: 何名様ですかなんめいさまですか (nanmeisamadesuka), “how many in your party?” You answer with 一人ですひとりです (hitoridesu) or 二人ですふたりです (futaridesu), or simply with held-up fingers. (Staff use the more formal 名めい (mei) counter; you answer with 人にん (nin).) Orders lean on the older set: これをふたつ (korewofutatsu), or ビールを二本びーるをにほん (bi-ruwonihon). The restaurant field note has the rest of that exchange, and the gestures field note covers how Japanese speakers count on their own fingers — thumb first, folding in.

And then the writing. The number kanji 一いち (ichi) through 十じゅう (juu), plus 百ひゃく (hyaku), 千せん (sen), 万まん (man), and 円えん (en), sit at the very start of most N5 kanji lists. That's fourteen characters, fifteen with 何なん (nan), “how many.” They let you read a price tag, a floor button, and a menu, and they turn up again on the sound-change side, as in 三百さんびゃく (sanbyaku). If you're starting kanji, start here. They're the simplest characters with the biggest everyday payoff, and the kanji field note explains why the order you learn them in matters.

Say よん (yon) when counting, giving a phone number, a price, or a floor. Use し (shi) only inside fixed words you learn as vocabulary — 四月しがつ (shigatsu), April, is the one you'll meet first. Four o'clock and four people take a third form, a clipped よ (yo): 四時よじ (yoji), 四人よにん (yonin). When in doubt, よん (yon) is understood everywhere.

百ひゃく (hyaku) — on its own, without いち (ichi) in front. Multiples stack: 二百にひゃく (nihyaku) is 200, 五百ごひゃく (gohyaku) is 500, with three sound changes to know — 三百さんびゃく (sanbyaku) (300), 六百ろっぴゃく (roppyaku) (600), 八百はっぴゃく (happyaku) (800). A hundred yen is 百円ひゃくえん (hyakuen), and 1,000 works the same way: plain 千せん (sen), no いち (ichi) in front.

A counter is a suffix that follows a number and names the category of thing being counted. 人にん (nin) for people, 本ほん (hon) for long objects, 枚まい (mai) for flat ones, 円えん (en) for yen. English has a few of these (“two slices of bread”); Japanese uses them for nearly everything. When you don't know the right one, the general-purpose ひとつ (hitotsu)・ふたつ (futatsu) series or 個こ (ko) will be understood, and nobody will mind.

Both, and mostly Arabic numerals in daily life: prices, timetables, phone numbers, and anything written horizontally use 1, 2, 3. Kanji numerals appear in vertical text, on traditional menus and signs, in some formal documents, and inside set words like 一人ひとり (hitori) and 二日ふつか (futsuka). That's why the ten number kanji pay off so quickly. You can find yourself reading them on a soba-shop menu the same week you learn them.

In Ukiyoe Japanese, the numbers are literally the front door of kanji. The first two N5 kanji sets in the app are 一いち (ichi)–五ご (go) and 六ろく (roku)–十じゅう (juu), each character with its readings and origin story. A later set adds 百ひゃく (hyaku), 千せん (sen), 万まん (man), and 円えん (en) under “shopping and big numbers.”

The reason to say the numbers out loud, though, is Speak. The restaurant scenario asks you お一人ですかおひとりですか (ohitoridesuka) and closes with a bill of 八百円はっぴゃくえん (happyakuen), built only from what you've already covered. So the first time you say 一人ですひとりです (hitoridesu) isn't at the door of a real restaurant. Ten sounds, five counters, four rules. That's the week.