How do you say the date in Japanese?
In English we say things like June 26, 2007 or 26th of June, 2007.
One thing you will learn about Japanese is that they always talk from largest to smallest piece of information.
So when Japanese talk about dates they say year, month then day.
First, let’s talk about year.
So how do we say 2007?
ni sen nana nen
Who said what now?
ni two
sen thousand
nana seven
nen year
So, how does it work?
To talk in the thousands:
sen 1,000
ni sen 2,000
san zen 3,000
yon sen 4,000
go sen 5,000
rokku sen 6,000
nana sen 7,000
hassen 8,000
kyuu sen 9,000
What about hundreds?
hyakku 100
ni hyakku 200
san byakku 300
yon hyakku 400
go hyakku 500
roppyakku 600
nana hyakku 700
happyakku 800
kyuu hyakku 900
And the tens?
Ten are easy once you can count to ten, check it out:
ichi 1
ni 2
san 3
yon 4 (but just say yo when the word nen follows it)
go 5
roku 6
nana 7
hachi 8
kyuu 9
juu 10
juu ichi (10, 1, right?) 11
juu ni (10, 2) 12
ni juu nana (2, 10, 7) 27
nana juu hachi (7, 10, 8 ) 78
roku juu go (6, 10, 5) 65
So, 1965 is: sen kyuu hyakku roku juu go nen
Try this test:
1974
2001
1823
1995
Done?
Next lesson we will look at the month (hint: the months are the easiest part).
Here are the answers:
1974 sen kyuu hyakku nana juu yo nen
2001 ni sen ichi nen
1823 sen happyakku ni juu san nen
1995 sen kyuu hyakku kyuu juu go nen
How did you go? See you in the next lesson.