Learn Japanese Language

Learn Japanese Words Starting With The Basics

Learning another foreign language can prove especially useful and interesting. There are many benefits of knowing another language: you can aim for a better paid job which may require that skill, you can spend an entertaining vacation in Japan knowing the language, and you can make new friends from this country. If you are interested in the Japanese culture and civilization, it would be recommended to learn japanese words, starting with the basics as you will understand more of their way of life.

The first time you start learning a foreign language you start with the basic things: the most used grammar rules and the most frequent used words. And among the first words you learn when you start studying another language are the numbers.

Learning to count in Japanese is quite easy. If you know the numbers from 1 to 10, you will find counting in Japanese very easy, as almost all numbers are made of combinations of the ciphers from 1 to 10. Along side the decimals, there are a few more numbers you need to know: 100, 1000 and 10,000.

Here are the main Japanese numbers: 1 (ichi), 2 (ni), 3(san), 4(shi), 5 (go), 6(rokku), 7(hichi), 8(hachi), kyu(9), 10(jyu), 100(hyaku), 1000(sen), and 10,000(man). If you would want to say 11, it is very simple. It is just a combination of 10 and 1, so it is called Jyu ichi (10 - jyu + 1-inchi). For example, 15 is just as simple: it is jyu go (jyu-10- + go-5-).

For greater numbers, things are just as easy. Japanese differs from English when it comes to counting numbers: while in English you count in thousands until you reach one million, things are different in Japanese. They do not say ten thousand; instead they use an estra word to represent the number. That is why 10,000 is called man and not 10 of 1000s for example (jyu sen). 20,000 is called 2 10,000s: ni man.

Another thing you should look into when you start learning Japanese is the objects you use every day. Because Japan and the people are highly traditional and deeply rooted in their ancient culture, many of the words of modern Japanese are related to their past. A good example for this is the way the name the days of the week. Because the early Japanese society was a mainly agricultural one, with a lot of religious influences, they have named the week days using the words for: sun, moon, fire, water, wood, earth and gold. The first day of the week, Sunday, carries the name of the sun, just like English: nichi. Another similitude with English is the fact that Monday carries the name of the moon, which is getsu in Japanese. Tuesday in Japanese is the same as fire: ka. Wednesday is the water day and the word for water in Japanese is sui. The word for both Thursday and wood is moku. Friday carries the name of gold, which is kin. And finally, Saturday is the earth day: dou.

And just like in English we use the word "day" at the end of the day's name, Japanese uses the youbi ending, so the days of the week are called: Nichi-youbi, Getsu-youbi, Ka-youbi, Sui-youbi, Moku-youbi, Kin-youbi and Dou-youbi

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