Chapter: 1 Lesson: 12 - Counting in Japanese Part 2: 10-99

No overview was provided for this lesson.

This is part 2 of 3 in learning how to count in Japanese. If you haven’t completed the previous lesson, please do as you will likely be lost and unable to understand some of the content herein.

We’ve previously discussed the differences between onyomi and kunyomi, number-related Japanese superstitions, two methods of counting by hand used in Japan, and numbers 0 to 9. In this lesson we will be continuing from 10 to 99.


There is a slight difference in counting beyond the number 10 between the English language and Japanese. In English the number 11 is eleven, but in Japanese it’s ten-one. We’ll be explaining this for each number up to 19 to illustrate how this works.

Counter	EXAMPLE	ROMAJI	JAPANESE
10	Ten	Jyuu	十
11	Ten+One	Jyuu-ichi	十一
12	Ten+Two	Jyuu-ni	十二
13	Ten+Three	Jyuu-san	十三
14	Ten+Four	Jyuu-yon	十四
15	Ten+Five	Jyuu-go	十五
16	Ten+Six	Jyuu-roku	十六
17	Ten+Seven	Jyuu-nana	十七
18	Ten+Eight	Jyuu-hachi	十八
19	Ten+Nine	Jyuu-kyuu	十九

Incidentally, Jyuu-San has a superstition much like in western culture whereas it is considered unlucky and as a result this number may not appear in elevators, apartment numbers, airline seats and so on. Sometimes, the number 14 is revered as unlucky as well as it contains the number 4 which when pronounced as shi which can also mean death. Many refuse to use shi while counting but replace it with yon as explained before.


To proceed from 19 to 20, how do you think we’ll go about this? That’s right; we’ll use two-ten to count 20. If we want to count 30 we’ll say three-ten and for 40 we’ll use four-ten and so on. Let’s go through this list of numbers and see the pattern.

Counter	EXAMPLE	ROMAJI	JAPANESE
20	Two+Ten	Ni-Jyuu	二十
21	Two+Ten+One	Ni-Jyuu-ichi	二十一
22	Two+Ten+Two	Ni-Jyuu-ni	二十二
23	Two+Ten+Three	Ni-Jyuu-san	二十三
24	Two+Ten+Four	Ni-Jyuu-yon	二十四
25	Two+Ten+Five	Ni-Jyuu-go	二十五
26	Two+Ten+Six	Ni-Jyuu-roku	二十六
27	Two+Ten+Seven	Ni-Jyuu-nana	二十七
28	Two+Ten+Eight	Ni-Jyuu-hachi	二十八
29	Two+Ten+Nine	Ni-Jyuu-kyuu	二十九

That should have been fairly straight-forward now that we understand the pattern. We can apply the very same pattern for 30, 31, 32, and all the way to 99! Let’s go through the many examples for clarification.

Counter	EXAMPLE	ROMAJI	JAPANESE
10	Ten	Jyuu	十
11	Ten+One	Jyuu-ichi	十一
12	Ten+Two	Jyuu-ni	十二
13	Ten+Three	Jyuu-san	十三
14	Ten+Four	Jyuu-yon	十四
15	Ten+Five	Jyuu-go	十五
16	Ten+Six	Jyuu-roku	十六
17	Ten+Seven	Jyuu-nana	十七
18	Ten+Eight	Jyuu-hachi	十八
19	Ten+Nine	Jyuu-kyuu	十九
20	Two+Ten	Ni-Jyuu	二十
21	Two+Ten+One	Ni-Jyuu-ichi	二十一
22	Two+Ten+Two	Ni-Jyuu-ni	二十二
23	Two+Ten+Three	Ni-Jyuu-san	二十三
24	Two+Ten+Four	Ni-Jyuu-yon	二十四
25	Two+Ten+Five	Ni-Jyuu-go	二十五
26	Two+Ten+Six	Ni-Jyuu-roku	二十六
27	Two+Ten+Seven	Ni-Jyuu-nana	二十七
28	Two+Ten+Eight	Ni-Jyuu-hachi	二十八
29	Two+Ten+Nine	Ni-Jyuu-kyuu	二十九
30	Three+Ten	San-Jyuu	三十
40	Four+Ten	yon-Jyuu	四十
50	Five+Ten	Go-Jyuu	五十
60	Six+Ten	Roku-Jyuu	六十
70	Seven+Ten	nana-Jyuu	七十
80	Eight+Ten	Hachi-Jyuu	八十
90	Nine+Ten	Kyuu-Jyuu	九十
99	Nine+Ten+Nine	Kyuu-Jyuu-Kyuu	九十九

In the previous lesson, we’ve learned how to recognize and write the numbers 1 to 5, and now we can continue learning the remainder of these basic kanji.

Roku

六

Draw your first stroke from top to bottom then follow the second stroke from left to right. Your third stroke will be the bottom left stroke “leg” from top to bottom going left and finally the stroke to the right of it.

Shichi

七

Instead of starting from the top-most, begin by drawing the horizontal stroke first. Now move from top to bottom in one stroke to complete the kanji.

Hachi

八

Start with the left stroke moving down and then the second stroke move top to bottom.

Kyuu

九

Draw this one similarly to how you would with か by starting with the top middle stroke going down then from left to right in one stroke.

Juu

十

Left to right, top to bottom.

We have developed random number generators that should help you learn these numbers rather quickly. Please refer back to the previous lesson for more tips on learning how to count. Remember; click next to display a new number.

The purpose of these generators are not to test your knowledge of these numbers but rather your ability to recall their meaning. The faster you are at these numbers, the better you understand them. This may sound obvious but you’ll realize how true this really is the more you practice.


We have arrived at the end of another lesson, and while this lesson was a little easier than the last, we will be able to take that time to learn a few new hiragana characters.