STUDY JAPANESE ONLINE WITH NATIVES HERE

Days, Months and Years in Japanese

Do you know how to write and say the days, months and years in Japanese? In this article, we will take a detailed look at how to write and pronounce days, months, and years in the Japanese language. ing that the writing is usually similar to the Chinese language, which can make it easier for you to recognize both.

Days, months, and years can be written with both Roman numerals (123) and with the ideograms of the Japanese language (一二三). There is no rule for when to use each of these forms, they usually coexist in different occasions. Of course, when pronouncing, it is recommended to use the popular reading in the Japanese language.

We also recommend reading:

How do you say the days of the week in Japanese?

Although the focus of this article is the days, months and years, we should start by looking at the days of the week in Japanese (Monday to Sunday), which are practically the names of the planets or the 5 elements.

domingo 日曜日 nichiyoubi
segunda-feira 月曜日 getsuyoubi
terça-feira 火曜日 kayoubi
quarta-feira 水曜日 suiyoubi
quinta-feira 木曜日 mokuyoubi
sexta-feira 金曜日 kinyoubi
sábado 土曜日 doyoubi

How do you say the days of the month in Japanese?

The days of the month are accompanied by an ideogram that is pronounced nichi [日] which means sun and day. The table below explains better the ways to pronounce the days of the month in Japanese.

We leave below 2 readings, both are correct but are used differently. When referring to a day in a given month, we usually use the special reading in bold.

DAY ROMAJI KANJI SPECIAL ROMAJI
1 ichi nichi 一日 tsuitachi
2 ni nichi 二日 futsuka
3 san nichi 三 日 mikka
4 shi/yon nichi 四日 yokka
5 go nichi 五日 itsuka
6 roku nichi 六日 muika
7 nana nichi 七 日 nanoka
8 hachi nichi 八 日 youka
9 kyu nichi 九 日 kokonoka
10 juu nichi 十日 tooka
11 juu ichi nichi 十一日
12 juu ni nichi 十二日
13 juu san nichi 十三日
14 juu yon nichi 十四日 juu yokka
15... juu go nichi 十五日
20 nii ju nichi 二 十日 hatsu ka
24 nii ju yon nichi 二十四日 ni juu yokka
25 nii ju go nichi 二十五日
30 san juu nichi 三十日
31 san juu ichi nichi 三十一日
Days, months and years in Japanese

How do you say the months in Japanese?

In Japanese, there is no special name for each month. They usually just say the number followed by the ideogram tsuki (月) which means moon (tsuki) and month (gatsu). It may seem strange to say Month 1, Month 2, Month 3, but when you stop to think about it, it is much simpler and easier.

  • January (Ichigatsu) - January
  • February (Nigatsu) - February
  • March - March
  • April (Shigatsu) - April
  • May (Gogatsu) - May
  • June (Rokugatsu) - June
  • July - July
  • August (Hachigatsu) - August
  • September - Setembro
  • October - Outubro
  • November - November
  • December (Jūnigatsu) - December

The Japanese also have an old traditional way of saying the months in Japanese that is rarely used. Currently it is often used in horoscope calendars, lunar calendar and other traditional things.

This calendar is called the wafuu getsumii [和風月名] which literally means Japanese-style month names.

Kanji Romaji
1月 睦月 mutsuki
2月 如月 kisaragi
3月 弥生 yayoi
4月 卯月 udzuki
5月 皐月 satsuki
6月 水無月 minadzuki
7月 文月 fumidzuki
8月 葉月 hadzuki
9月 長月 nagatsuki
10月 神無月 kannadzuki
11月 霜月 shimotsuki
12月 師走 shiwasu

Note that not all months in this traditional list have the moon character.

Days, months and years in Japanese

How do you say the year in Japanese?

The year works the same way as the day and month, the number followed by the ideogram "nen" [年] which literally means year. See below an example of how to say "April 1st, 2005":

  • 2005 年 4 月 1日 (Nii sen go nen / shigatsu / tsuitachi) 二千五年 四月 一日

We realize that first comes the year, then the month and finally the day. If we know all the numbers in the Japanese language we can easily write the days, months and years in the language.

Read also: Numbers in Japanese - Complete Guide

Words related to Calendar in Japanese

We can't talk about years, days, months and dates without talking about calendars and other related words like Japanese leap year, lunar calendar and other date related words. Make good use of the vocabulary table below:

  • karendaa (カレンダー)-Calendar
  • Koyomi (暦)-Calendar
  • Tayoureki (太陽暦)-Solar Calendar
  • Taiinreki (太陰暦)-Lunar Calendar
  • Heinen (平年)-Common Year
  • Leap Year (閏年)-Leap Year
  • Gregorian (西暦) - Common Era

I hope you have enjoyed this simple article! We also appreciate the shares. If you wish to learn Japanese, we recommend checking out our course.