• tabeRU -> tabeMASU
  たべる ->   たべます
• miRU -> miMASEN
  みる ->   みません

On the basic level, you say the number of years you are the then add さい (sai.) If you’re 10 yeah old it’d be じゅうさう (juusai)

As always, there are exceptions. 20 when counting is nijuu, but as an age it gets a special name. Hatachi is used to describe 20-year-olds (this is like turning 18 in the U.S.) since this is the age when people are officially adults.

In Japan at the beginning of the year a person will turn 20, there’s a big celebration for all of them, even though it my not be their birthday yet.

I’m not going to re-type the 1-20 chart again, but here’s the numbers (1-20) post if you need refresher.

We’re going to skip ahead with some words I haven’t done yet, but don’t fret too much ^_^

So how do you ask someone’s age?

How old are you?
なん さい です か
Nan sai desu ka?

To answer:
I am ____ years old.
わたし は ___さい です*
watashi wa___sai desu

For example, I’m 23, so I’d say:
わたし は にじゅうさん さいです*
Watashi wa nijuusan sai desu.

However, in Japanese it’s completely acceptable to leave you the “I” part & just say “23 years old.” We do this in English as well.

So I could also say “nijuusan sai desu”

I found this nifty video that is done by Yuu Asakura @ Expert Village.
I’m going to try & get these for my posts as we go along, so you can hear a native speaker.

How to Ask & Tell Your Age in Japanese — powered by eHow.com

** If you picked up that it is actually written watashi HA, good for you! You know you’re hiragana! However, in situations like these, it is pronounced wa, & that is covered in another lesson.

Fist things first: Questions & Answers.
What time is it?
Ima nanji desu ka?
いま なんじ です か?

It is ___.
___ desu.
___です.

To get the hour, basically take the number & stick じ (ji) on the end.
3:00 would be さんじ (sanji). Ji is kind of like adding “o’clock,” but it literally means hour.

**Take note of 4,7 & 9. They use these specific forms of the numbers.

To get half-past you just add はん (han). Han actually means half.
4:30 is よじはん.

Also, to differentiate between am/pm you’d use gozen for am & gogo for pm.

3:00 am
gozen sanji desu
ごぜん さんじ です

5:30 pm (This one makes me laugh)
gogo goji han desu
ごご ごじ はん

I mentioned before that in Japanese there’s a separate unit for Ten-Thousands. It took me a bit to wrap my head around it. Say we have a huge number like 98,765.
In English, we’d read it 98 thousand, 7 hundred, 60, 5.

In Japanese it’s essentially read like this: 9 Ten-Thousand, 8 Thousand, 7 Hundred, 60, 5.

To me, it’s really hard to think that there’s something else to put in there. It almost makes sense, because Japanese currency ￥ (Yen, or えん [en] in Japanese) is usually listed in much larger numbers than we’re used to with dollars.
￥100 is about $1.00 give or take.
If our big number above was ￥98,765… it’d be $987.65 roughly.

1,000.	sen	せん
10,000.	ichiman*	いちまん
20,000.	niman	にまん
30,000.	sanman	さんまん
40,000.	yonman~	よんまん
50,000.	goman	ごまん
60,000.	rokuman	ろくまん
70,000.	nanaman~	ななまん
80,000.	hachiman	はちまん
90,000.	kyuuman	きゅうまん

Using this new list, lets look at the big number again, & break it down:

90,000	kyuuman
8,000	hassen
700	nanahyaku
60	rokujuu
5	go

So all together 98,765 would be read:
きゅうまん はっせん ななひゃく ろくじゅう ご
kyuuman hassen nanahyaku rokujuu go

It’s alot to take in, but I found for myself that breaking it down helps.

I’m pretty sure the next will be the last *strictly* numbers post for a while. We’ll get to time & age soon.

Like with the rest if the Japanese numbers there’s a system. With the exception of 1000 (which is せん [sen] all by itself,) you take the number & stick せん (sen) to the end of it. 2000 is にせん (nisen), and 5000 is ごせん (gosen). And also like the others, there are irregulars. Keep an eye out for 3000 さんびゃく (sanzen) & 8000 はっぴゃく (hassen)

1337 would read out like this:
せん さんびゃく さんじゅう なな
sen sanbyaku sanjuu nana

It helps to break it down this way:

1408:
せん よんひゃく はち
sen yonhyaku hachi

Now we’re going to do 100-1000.

It may seem like a big jump, but it’s not nearly as taxing as it seems.

In English, we have names for the units. By units I mean ones, tens, hundreds, thousands, etc.

In Japanese, they have all those but, there’s also a unit for 10-thousands.
It’ll make more sense when you see it, but that’ll be in a later post.

Below are the “hundreds” units, including 1,000 .

** These are irregular and don’t follow the “___hyaku” pattern.
~~ Also note that these use yon & nana as the prefixes.
shihyaku & shichihyaku would be incorrect.

So lets refresh…
12 is 10 + 2
juuni = juu + ni

42 is 4 * 10 + 2
yonjuuni = yon * juu + ni

Hayku is 100 so to say 101, it’d be
100 + 1 = 101
hayku + ichi = hyakuichi

123 = 100 + 23 (23 is ni * juu + san)
hyakunijuusan = hyaku + ni * juu + san

999 = 900 + 99 (kyuu * juu + kyuu)
kyuuhyakukyuujuukyuu
きゅうひゃくきゅうじゅうきゅう
(not gonna lie, that makes me giggle)

2 * 10 = 20
ni * juu = nijuu
20 + 1 = 21
nijuu + ichi = nijuuichi

** I mentioned before that sometimes you need to use certain pronunciations for certain things. This is one of those times
It would be incorrect to say “shijuu” for 40, or “shichijuu” for 70. I’m not sure why that is, but it is

*zero is technically a foreign word so it’s written in Katakana. It would be ぜろ in Hiragana.

As you can see, 0, 4, 7 & 9 have a few different ways to say them. When counting you can pick whichever one you’re more comfortable with using. However, you’ll still need to know all of them; when doing other things like telling time or giving phone numbers, only certain ones will be used.

That’s it! You’ve got 1-20 under your belt!

I took this with my cell… so it’s kinda crappy.

I love tonkatsu! I LOVE gyoza. Gyoza are fried pork dumplings, and are sooo good. My favorite Chinese restaurant at home makes them, and so does Ruby Tuesdays, but these are SO GOOD!

せんせい　was explaining all kinds of things to us about eating in japan. Normally, they wouldn’t give you a spoon, so you just sip from the bowl. Also, it’s ok to slurp. When eating soup or noodles, it’s almost expected.

If you go to a restaurant and they give you disposable chopsticks, many people take the wrapper & tie it in a knot to make a chopstick rest to you don’t set them on the table. (I put mine on the bento in the pic so they could bee seen.)

Before you eat (especially in someone’s home to which you are a guest) you say いたでます （itadekimasu- Thank you for this meal.) After the same meal you say ごちそうさま （Gochisoosama- Thank you for this meal.)

When ordering you’d say おべんとのとんかつおねがいします　（Bento no tonkatsu onegaishimasu -　I’d like a tonkatsu bento box please.)

My bf & I have been back to sumo several times since & we’ve tried a few other things. Tempura is good also; it’s a different breading than the tonkatsu, and comes with a different dipping sauce. The breading tastes alot like fried dough, it’s very sweet. I liked it, but it’s too much sweet for a whole meal. Worth a try if a friend orders it & you can snag a bite

So the moral of the story is: IF YOU HAVE A JAPANESE RESTAURANT NEAR YOU GO EAT THERE!

~Arcsis