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Daily lessons · Day 4 of 90

Numbers & how much?

Count, and understand a price

Numbers are where a lot of learners stall, because Japanese counting has some irregularities. Today you'll get one to ten solidly, learn how to build bigger numbers (which is genuinely easier than English), and be able to ask a price and understand the answer - the single most useful transaction skill for a visitor.

One to ten

Learn these as a rhythm, out loud, several times. They're the foundation for prices, times, quantities and dates:

ichi, ni, san, yon, go
1, 2, 3, 4, 5
4 has two readings: よん (yon) and し (shi). よん is safer - し also means “death”, so it's often avoided.
roku, nana, hachi, kyū, jū
6, 7, 8, 9, 10
7 is なな (nana) or しち (shichi); 9 is きゅう (kyū) or く (ku). The first of each pair is the safer default.
zero / rei
0
ゼロ (from English) is the everyday one; れい is more formal, used in official contexts.
Why it works

Above ten, Japanese numbers are beautifully logical - far more so than English's “eleven, twelve, thirteen”. 11 is じゅういち (jū-ichi, literally “ten-one”), 20 is にじゅう (ni-jū, “two-ten”), 35 is さんじゅうご (san-jū-go, “three-ten-five”). Learn 1-10 and you can construct everything up to 99 without learning a single extra word.

Bigger numbers and yen

Prices in Japan run into thousands routinely, so these matter more than you'd expect:

hyaku / sen / man
100 / 1,000 / 10,000
まん (man) = ten thousand is the big one to internalise - Japanese groups large numbers in units of 10,000, not 1,000.
___ en desu.
It's ___ yen.
えん (en) is what we spell “yen” in English. Say the number, then えん.
gohyaku-en / sen-en
500 yen / 1,000 yen
Everyday amounts - a coffee, a cheap lunch. Worth being able to hear instantly.
Why it works

That まん unit catches everyone out. In English we think in thousands, so ¥30,000 reads as “thirty thousand”. Japanese thinks in ten-thousands, so it's さんまん (san-man) - literally “three ten-thousands”. When a price sounds confusing, that's usually why. A rough traveller's shortcut: ichi-man (10,000 yen) is roughly £50.

Asking a price

Now put it to work. This is a complete, self-contained transaction skill:

ikura desu ka.
How much is it?
いくら (ikura) = “how much”. Note the pattern again: [question word] + です + か.
takai desu.
It's expensive.
たかい also means “tall” - context decides.
yasui desu.
It's cheap.
Not an insult - Japanese shoppers say it happily.
kādo de ii desu ka.
Is card OK?
Genuinely useful - plenty of small Japanese businesses are still cash-only.
Why it works

いくらですか is built on the exact frame you learned yesterday with なんですか - a question word plus ですか. You now have two of these (なん = what, いくら = how much) and you'll meet どこ (where) tomorrow. Same frame, different question word: that's the whole trick.

Carry over, from earlier days

kore wa nan desu ka
What is this?
are
that over there
arigatō gozaimasu
Thank you (polite)

Check yourself

9 questions. Nothing is saved unless you finish.