Dates are written by placing the day counter 日 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. For example, the 15th is 十五日 and the 31st is 三十一日.
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 | 一日tsuitachi |
| one day | 一日ichinichi |
| day two; two days | 二日futsuka |
| day three; three days | 三日mikka |
| day four; four days | 四日yokka |
| day five; five days | 五日itsuka |
| day six; six days | 六日muika |
| day seven; seven days | 七日nanoka |
| day eight; eight days | 八日youka |
| day nine; nine days | 九日kokonoka |
| day ten; ten days | 十日tooka |
| day fourteen; fourteen days | 十四日juuyokka |
| day fifteen; fifteen days | 十五日juugonichi |
| day seventeen; seventeen days | 十七日juushichinichi |
| day twenty; twenty days | 二十日hatsuka |
| day twenty-four; twenty-four days | 二十四日nijuuyokka |
| day thirty-one; thirty-one days | 三十一日sanjuuichinichi |
The counter 年 can be used for counting years. Counting years is completely regular except when 年 is preceded by 四, in which case 四 is pronounced as よ. Below you can see the 年 counter used in an example sentence.
| (I) was born on March 21, 1984. | 一千 九百 八十 四年 三月 二十 一日 に 生まれました。issen kyuuhyaku hachijuu yonen sangatsu nijuu ichinichi ni umaremashita. |
