Japanese

Dates are written by placing the day counter 日にち 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 日にち. For example, the 15th is 十じゅう五ご日にち and the 31st is 三さん十じゅう一いち日にち.

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

Date	Reading
day one	一つい日たち tuitati
one day	一いち日にち itiniti
day two; two days	二ふつ日か hutuka
day three; three days	三みっ日か mikka
day four; four days	四よっ日か yokka
day five; five days	五いつ日か ituka
day six; six days	六むい日か muika
day seven; seven days	七なの日か nanoka
day eight; eight days	八よう日か youka
day nine; nine days	九ここの日か kokonoka
day ten; ten days	十とお日か tooka
day fourteen; fourteen days	十じゅう四よっ日か zyuuyokka
day fifteen; fifteen days	十じゅう五ご日にち zyuugoniti
day seventeen; seventeen days	十じゅう七しち日にち zyuusitiniti
day twenty; twenty days	二は十つ日か hatuka
day twenty-four; twenty-four days	二に十じゅう四よっ日か nizyuuyokka
day thirty-one; thirty-one days	三さん十じゅう一いち日にち sanzyuuitiniti

The counter 年ねん can be used for counting years. Counting years is completely regular except when 年ねん is preceded by 四, in which case 四 is pronounced as よ. Below you can see the 年ねん counter used in an example sentence.

(I) was born on March 21, 1984.

一いっ千せん　九きゅう百ひゃく　八はち十じゅう　四よ年ねん　三さん月がつ　二に十じゅう　一いち日にち　に　生うまれました。 issen kyuuhyaku hatizyuu yonen sangatu nizyuu itiniti ni umaremasita.