Guild Wars: EPoS Forums: Guild Wars: EPoS Forums -> Japanese Lesson 1 - Numbers

Okay, in this first lesson, we will learn the numbers 1-99. You might be thinking that it is a bit much to learn in one lesson, but once you learn the first ten numbers, you can learn the rest easily. First of all, because I will be using Kana and Kanji in these lessons, you will need ton install and enable Japanese Language Packs. Please search on Google on how to do this if you do not know.

Here are the numbers 1-10 in Japanese, along with their Kunyomi and Onyomi.



Now, you might be thinking to yourself, 'What the hell are Kunyomi and Onyomi?'. Well, in Japanese, there are 2 types of pronunciations for words, there are Kunyomi and Onyomi.

Kunyomi (訓読み) means Japanese Reading. It is generally used for Kanji that are used on their own and are not in compound words. The only exception to this rule are last names, which are written in Kunyomi instead of Onyomi, even if they are compound names.

Onyomi (音読み) means Chinese Reading. They are Japanese versions of the Chinese sounds of the words and are generally used for compound words. Surnames, though normally compound words, are written in Kunyomi instead of Onyomi.

When you look in a Kanji dictionary, when romanised, Onyomi are generally written in block capitals, while Kunyomi are written in lowercase letters. In these lessons, I will separate Kunyomi and Onyomi into different columns for you.


Now back to the main lesson, numbers. When you write numbers above ten, you use the number ten, then state how many units are after it. Look at this table to see what they are:



That is how basic numbers from 1-99 and beyond are formed. I will talk more about larger numbers in a later lesson. If you have any problems with those, feel free to contact me.