Numbers
Numbers in Japanese initially, before learning counters are probably simpler than those in English. In Japanese, up until the number 100, all numbers follow the same pattern of combining previous numbers together. Even after 100, this pattern continues, with some slight variations in pronunciation for the values of 300, 600, 800, 3000 and 8000 (for numbers up to 10000) Starting with 1-10, which become the base of the rest of the numbers:
Number 1 to 10
| English | Kanji | Hiragana |
| 1 | 一 | いち |
| 2 | 二 | に |
| 3 | 三 | さん |
| 4 | 四 | し or よん |
| 5 | 五 | ご |
| 6 | 六 | ろく |
| 7 | 七 | しち or なな |
| 8 | 八 | はち |
| 9 | 九 | きゅう or く |
| 10 | 十 | じゅう |
Number 11 to 19
After 10, the pattern repeats, adding じゅう before all of the numbers up to 20.
| English | Kanji | Hiragana |
| 11 | 十一 | じゅういち |
| 12 | 十二 | じゅうに |
| 13 | 十三 | じゅうさん |
| 14 | 十四 | じゅうし or じゅうよん |
| 15 | 十五 | じゅうご |
| 16 | 十六 | じゅうろく |
| 17 | 十七 | じゅうしち or じゅうなな |
| 18 | 十八 | じゅうはち |
| 19 | 十九 | じゅうきゅう or じゅうく |
Number 20 to 30
After 10, the pattern repeats, adding じゅう before all of the numbers up to next 10s.
| English | Kanji | Hiragana |
| 21 | 二十一 | にじゅういち |
| 22 | 二十二 | にじゅうに |
| 23 | 二十三 | にじゅうさん |
| 24 | 二十四 | にじゅうし or にじゅうよん |
| 25 | 二十五 | にじゅうご |
| 26 | 二十六 | にじゅうろく |
| 27 | 二十七 | にじゅうしち or にじゅうなな |
| 28 | 二十八 | にじゅうはち |
| 29 | 二十九 | にじゅうきゅう or にじゅうく |
| 30 | 三十 | さんじゅう |
Number 10 to 90
This pattern is repeated until 99, where at 100, a new character is introduced.
| English | Kanji | Hiragana |
| 10 | 十 | じゅう |
| 20 | 二十 | にじゅう |
| 30 | 三十 | さんじゅう |
| 40 | 四十 | よんじゅう or しじゅう |
| 50 | 五十 | ごじゅう |
| 60 | 六十 | ろくじゅう |
| 70 | 七十 | ななじゅう or しちじゅう |
| 80 | 八十 | はちじゅう |
| 90 | 九十 | きゅうじゅう |
Over 100
There are special characters for some numbers
| English | Kanji | Hiragana |
| 100 | 百 | ひゃく |
| 1,000 | 千 | せん |
| 10,000 | 万 | まん |
| 100,000,000 | 億 | おく |
| 1,000,000,000,000 | 兆 | ちょう |
| 10,000,000,000,000,000 | 京 | けい |
After 100, certain pronunciations change slightly, however all of the values of 1-99 have the same pronunciations as before. For example, 432 would be 四百三十二 or よんひゃくさんじゅうに. The value for 1000 is 千 or せん with the pronunciation pattern repeating again. For example, 5138 would be 五千百三十八 or ごせんひゃくさんじゅうはち.
- 0 (Zero) in Japanese is generally 零（れい）or ゼロ.
- Negative Numbers: Say マイナス followed by the number normally.
- Decimals: Generally, you would say ゼロ or 零 followed by 点（てん）which represents the decimal point. After the decimal point, read each digit as its own number. So 0.013 would be read as 零点零一三 （れいてんれいいちさん） OR ゼロ点ゼロ一三 （ゼロてんゼロいちさん）