japenese 1-10

[jctkd]

i have a sheet to study for class, Ichi, ni, san, shi(yon), go, roku, shichi (nanna), hachi, ku, ju, i feel like a idiot but why does the #1 and 7 have two different ways of saying it, wich is most commen? thanks

[Menjo]

i think alot of words and numbers have different ways of saying it, i dunno which is more common but its like every other language in that sense.

[Jay]

ive never heard of these other ways but you learn something new every day i have a friend who is japanese and he doesnt use the variations

[carl]

Shi also means "die" as in death. So for obvious reasons you have to be careful about how you use it. Shishi also means "quality" or "nature." It depends on what kanji you use. Hope this helps.

Carl

[Kaminari]

Yep, like Carl was saying, the different variations are used in different contexts.

[Shorin Ryuu]

Shi and Shichi are simply the "older" ways of saying four and seven.

As mentioned, "shi" means death so there is a lot of superstition surrounding it. You won't find a 4th floor on many places in Japan, for example. So there is some popular tradition in not using it. I guess martial artists are less afraid of death, eh?

[unknownstyle]

in my school we say them like you spelled them, and when your a 4th dan your a yondan, but ive never heard them call anyone a nannadan

[Ti]

When counting a different set is used for a couple of numbers, nothing major.

[Drithen]

You can use Shi and Shichi before 10, but after that its best to use Yon and Nana (at least thats what my Japanese sister in law says)

[24fightingchickens]

i have a sheet to study for class, Ichi, ni, san, shi(yon), go, roku, shichi (nanna), hachi, ku, ju, i feel like a idiot but why does the #1 and 7 have two different ways of saying it, wich is most commen? thanks

Because most of the kanji, the ideographic characters the Japanese write nouns and the bases of verbs and adjectives with, have two readings. Each of them can be read with a kun-yomi, which is the "rules reading", and an on-yomi, the "sound reading."

The kunyomi is the Japanese native way to pronounce the word. The onyomi is what the Japanese think is the original Chinese pronunciation.

For example, the character for big is pronounced "oh". If you put the character with another character, it is pronounced "dai." Kunyomi tend to be the stand-alone pronunciation, while onyomi tend to be the combo pronunciation, but this is not always true. You have to learn them one at a time.

Where was I?

Oh yes, the numbers.

So each of the numbers has a similar reading.

Number Onyomi Kunyomi

1 ichi hito

2 ni futa

3 san mi

4 shi yo/yon

5 go itsu

6 roku mutsu

7 shichi nana

8 hachi ya

9 ku/kyu kokono

10 ju toh

It is true that shi rhymes with death. However, I never heard a Japanese instructor avoid saying "shi" while counting numbers while living in Japan. I think that is a superstition and many Japanese don't care anymore than you care about living on the 13th floor or in the 13th house.