Dates

Dates are written by placing the day counter にち after the day of the month you would like to specify. Unfortunately, the day counter has by far the most irregularities of any counter. The 1st to the 10th, the 14th, the 17th, the 20th, the 24th and the 27th are all irregular.

For regular dates, the date is simply the number followed by the day counter にち. For example, the 15th is じゅうにち and the 31st is さんじゅういちにち.

Note that the Xth day and X days are said in the same way in Japanese for all numbers other than one.

DateReading
day one
ついたちtsuitachi
one day
いちにちichinichi
day two; two days
ふつfutsuka
day three; three days
みっmikka
day four; four days
よっyokka
day five; five days
いつitsuka
day six; six days
むいmuika
day seven; seven days
なのnanoka
day eight; eight days
ようyouka
day nine; nine days
ここのkokonoka
day ten; ten days
とおtooka
day fourteen; fourteen days
じゅうよっjuuyokka
day fifteen; fifteen days
じゅうにちjuugonichi
day seventeen; seventeen days
じゅうしちにちjuushichinichi
day twenty; twenty days
hatsuka
day twenty-four; twenty-four days
じゅうよっnijuuyokka
day thirty-one; thirty-one days
さんじゅういちにちsanjuuichinichi

The counter ねん can be used for counting years. Counting years is completely regular except when ねん is preceded by , in which case is pronounced as . Below you can see the ねん counter used in an example sentence.

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