LinguaTen numbers build every other number
いち に さん よん ご ろく なな はち きゅう じゅう are the whole of it. Eleven is じゅういち – ten one – and twenty is にじゅう – two tens. Nothing is irregular between eleven and ninety-nine, so once the first ten are secure the rest costs no memory at all. ひゃく is a hundred, and ぜろ is the borrowed word most people now use for nought.
| Number | Reading | Also read |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | いち | |
| 4 | よん | し |
| 7 | なな | しち |
| 9 | きゅう | く |
| 10 | じゅう | |
| 100 | ひゃく |
Four, seven and nine have two readings each
Counting aloud you will hear よん, なな and きゅう, and those are the ones to learn first. The older し, しち and く survive in fixed places – しがつ for April, しちじ for seven o'clock – and cannot be swapped for the newer readings there. し is also avoided in some contexts because it sounds like the word for death, which is why hospitals often have no room with that number.
ひゃくえんのコーヒーをかいましたI bought a hundred-yen coffee.
ぜんぶでさんぜんごひゃくえんですIt is three thousand five hundred yen altogether.
Words in this lesson
| Word | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| いち | one | いちがつはさむいです January is cold. |
| に | two | にかいのみせ the shop on the second floor |
| さん | three | さんにんのがくせい three students |
| よん | four | よんかいのへや the room on the fourth floor |
| ご | five | ごじにあいましょう Let us meet at five. |
| ろく | six | ろくがつはあめがおおいです There is a lot of rain in June. |
| なな | seven | ななさいのこども a seven-year-old child |
| はち | eight | はちにんのグループ a group of eight people |
| きゅう | nine | きゅうにんできました Nine of us came. |
| じゅう | ten | じゅうねんまえのしゃしん a photograph from ten years ago |
| ひゃく | hundred | ひゃくえんのおかし a hundred-yen sweet |
| ぜろ | zero | ぜろからはじめます I start from zero. |
Exercises
This lesson has 10 exercises in the app:
- multiple choice: 3
- match the pairs: 1
- fill the gap: 2
- build the sentence: 2
- translate the sentence: 1
- listen and type: 1
Try the first one
How is eleven built from the numbers you know?
The answer, the other exercises, the audio and your progress are in the app – free at A0 and A1.