Release Date: August 16th, 2024

Japanese 1 to 20 numbers

Let's study Japanese numbers from 1 to 20.

If you know how to say one-digit numbers (1 to 9) first, two-difit numbers are easy to remember. I'll teach one by one.

How to say Japanese numbers 1 to 20

First, there are three alphabets in Japanese. They are Kanji, Hiragana, and Katakana.

Katakana is not often used as a number, but Kanji and Hiragana are used rather often.

Kanji is often used in novels and when writing addresses vertically on envelopes. Hiragana is better to know in order to study how to read Japanese numbers.

Numbers	Romaji	Kanji	Hiragana	Katakana
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	ナナ
8	hachi	八	はち	ハチ
9	kyuu	九	きゅう	キュウ
10	juu	十	じゅう	ジュウ
11	juu ichi	十一	じゅういち	ジュウイチ
12	juu ni	十二	じゅうに	ジュウニ
13	juu san	十三	じゅうさん	ジュウサン
14	juu yon	十四	じゅうよん	ジュウヨン
15	juu go	十五	じゅうご	ジュウゴ
16	juu roku	十六	じゅうろく	ジュウロク
17	juu nana	十七	じゅうなな	ジュウナナ
18	juu hachi	十八	じゅうはち	ジュウハチ
19	juu kyuu	十九	じゅうきゅう	ジュウキュウ
20	ni juu	二十	にじゅう	ニジュウ

Should we use Kanji Numbers?

Most numbers in Japanese are written in Arabic numbers.

However, Japanese is often written vertically. When Arabic numbers are written vertically, they are very difficult to read and write.

The solution to this problem is the Japanese Kanji numbers. Kanji numbers are much easier to read. Japanese people often use Kanji numbers when writing vertically. In Japan, addresses on envelopes or books are written vertically.

There are also beautiful idioms and four-character phrases that use Kanji numbers.

Please master how to write numbers in Kanji characters too.