Japanese Counting System

Along with kanji and onomatopoeia, counting is an element of Japanese that seems daunting due to the sheer amount of words involved. There seems to be a counter for everything—in fact, the Japanese language has about 500 – 600 counters! (reference page is in Japanese only) Even native speakers will confess they don’t know all of them. … Read more

Normal Counting – Sino-Japanese Number Japanese – Romaji Kanji Hiragana Katakana 0 rei, zero 零 れい、ぜろ レイ、ゼロ 1 ichi 一 いち イチ 2 ni 二 に ニ 3 san 三 さん サン 4 yon, shi 四 よん、し ヨン、シ 5 go 五 ご ゴ 6 roku 六 ろく ロク 7 nana, shichi 七 なな、しち ナナ、シチ 8 … Read more