How to count to 9 quadrillion, 999 trillion, 999 billion, 999 million, 999 thousand, 999 in Japanese

First, a quick note: My stove works again, hurray! I had eggs and toast for breakfast, it was delicious. I am a man, and therefore I made my toast in the frying pan. Suck it, modern electronic conveniences.


Okaaaay, so as promised, here we go.

Counting in Japanese, as in English, is based off simply string different numbers together, and adding new "landmark" numbers every once in a while.

Vowel pronunciation guide: a = "ah"; i = "E"; u = "oo" (rhymes with mood, food, etc); e = "eh" (like the Canadian "eh" but less exaggerated); o = "oh." With that, let us begin.

"R" pronunciation guide: "R" in Japanese is used to represent both R and L, and in some cases D. It is pronounced as a mixed as a mixture of those 3, although the emphasis is on the L and the D, though, so the pronunciation is closest to "ld." If you fine this difficult, the Japanese will understand if you basically just use an "l" sound (so "roku" becomes "loku").

1 through 10 are the hardest:

1 = ichi
2 = ni
3 = san
4 = yon (common); shi (in special circumstances)
5 = go
6 = roku (pronounced "ldoku" or just "loku" if you are having trouble with the "ld" sound")
7 = nana (common); shichi (in special circumstances)
8 = hachi
9 = kyu (common); ku (in special circumstances)
10 = juu

For 11 - 19, you just combine "juu" with the corresponding "ones" digit, so 11 is "juu ichi," 12 is "juu ni," etc.

For 20-99, it's "tens" digit times 10, plus the "ones" digit, so 20 is "ni juu," 31 is "san juu ichi," 67 is "roku juu nana," etc

100 is "hyaku," and the "tens" and "ones" digits are added to it just like they are in english, so 101 is "hyaku ichi," 135 is "hyaku san juu go," etc.

For 200-999, all of the above rules apply, and you proceed the number with the "hundreds" digit multiplier, so 200 is "ni hyaku," 578 is "go hyaku nana juu hachi," etc.

EXCEPTIONS: all 300s begin with "san byaku" instead of "san hyaku," all 600s begin with "roppyaku" instead of "roku hyaku," all 800s begin with "happyaku" instead of "hachi hyaku."

1000 is "sen." For 1000-9999, all of the above rules apply, and the number is preceded with "thousands" digit multiplyer, so 2000 is "ni sen," 1050 is "sen go juu," 4789 is "yon sen nana hyaku hachi juu kyu," etc.

EXCEPTIONS: all 3000s begin with "san zen" instead of "san sen" and all 8000s begin with "hassen" instead of "hachi sen."

Here is where things get interesting. After 1000, the Japanese do not have the same landmark numbers (a million, a billion, etc) as Americans.

10000 is "ichi man." For 10,000-99,999,999, all of the above rules aply, and the number is preceded with the "ten thousands" digit multiplyer. So, 20,000 is "ni man," 39,872 is "san man kyu sen happyaku nana juu ni," 100,000 is "juu man," 345,430 is "san juu yon man go sen yon hyaku san juu," 1,000,000 is "hyaku man," 10,000,000 is "sen man," etc.

The numbers basically just build up on each other, like they do in English, and at 100,000,000, instead of having a repetetive "man man," there is a new landmark number of "oku." At this point, you continue to construct numbers in manner I have described above.

I do not know what number takes the place of 10 quadrillion (what would be "oku oku"), so the highest I can teach you to count to is 9,999,999,999,999,999. Say it with me: "kyu man kyu sen kyu hyaku kyu juu kyu oku kyu sen kyu hyaku kyu juu man kyu sen kyu hyaku kyu juu kyu."

I admit, that was difficult even for me to figure out. I'll get the hang of it eventually.