Basic Kanji 1 — Numbers, Money, Days of the Week

About This Unit

In this unit, you will read the kanji 一 through 十 for the numbers, the place-value kanji 百, 千, and 万, and the money unit 円. You will also learn the on'yomi of 日, 月, 火, 水, 木, 金, and 土 for the days of the week, and the basic readings of 年, 時, 分, and 半. Finally, you will preview the special readings that appear when reading dates.

Reading Numbers

The kanji 一 through 十 have one or more on'yomi. This unit organizes the frequently used on'yomi in a table.

百 is read ひゃく(hyaku), 千 is read せん(sen), and 万 is read まん(man). 百 and 千 change their sounds after 三, 六, and 八. 百 becomes さんびゃく(sanbyaku) after 三, ろっぴゃく(roppyaku) after 六, and はっぴゃく(happyaku) after 八. 千 also becomes さんぜん(sanzen) after 三 and はっせん(hassen) after 八. This change occurs only when a single-digit number is followed by a place-value kanji, so the readings of 百 and 千 after 三, 六, and 八 should be memorized separately.

Money and Days of the Week

円 indicates the unit of money, and its on'yomi is えん(en). 百円 is ひゃくえん and 一円 is いちえん. The rules above also apply when the number before 円 is 百 or 三百.

Days of the week use one on'yomi for each kanji, followed by 曜日(ようび) when spoken. 曜 is not among the basic kanji in this unit, so ようび is written in hiragana.

Day names add ようび to this on'yomi. For example, Monday is げつようび(getsuyōbi). Even 火 and 水, which have separate kun'yomi, use the on'yomi in days of the week.