Say big numbers: 百, 千, and 万
Count from hundreds into millions by stacking multipliers onto 百 (100), 千 (1,000), and the base-10,000 milestone 万 (10,000).
Large Number Compounds (百 · 千 · 万)
kore wa sengohyaku en desu
This is 1,500 yen.
Base 10,000 (Japanese 万) vs Base 1,000 (Western Thousand / Million)
Micro-Shiftこのパソコンは 十万 円でした。
Japanese groups digits in clusters of four zeros (万 = 10,000)This laptop was 100,000 yen (literally: 10 man).
100,000 in Japanese is not 'hundred thousand'; it is 10万 (じゅうまん: ten ten-thousands)!
Example Sentences
千円1,000 yen貸してlend meLend me 1,000 yen.
This is 1,500 yen.
Mental Model: The Base-10,000 Paradigm Shift
Western numbering systems group digits into clusters of thousands (10³), inserting a comma every three zeros: 1,000 (thousand), 1,000,000 (million), and 1,000,000,000 (billion).
Japanese operates on a base-10,000 system (10⁴), known as the myriad system. Instead of shifting names every three zeros, Japanese shifts major numerical units every four zeros:
- 10² (Hundreds): 百 (hyaku) (100)
- 10³ (Thousands): 千 (sen) (1,000)
- 10⁴ (Ten Thousands): 万 (man) (10,000)
- 10⁸ (Hundred Millions): 億 (oku) (100,000,000)
- 10¹² (Trillions): 兆 (chou) (1,000,000,000,000)
Once you internalize the four-zero shift, building huge numbers becomes predictable arithmetic:
- 10,000 is 一万 (ichiman) (one myriad).
- 100,000 is 十万 (juuman) (ten myriads).
- 1,000,000 is 百万 (hyakuman) (one hundred myriads).
- 10,000,000 is 一千万 (issenman) (one thousand myriads).
Euphonic Sound Shifts in 百 and 千
When combining single digits with 百 and 千, natural phonetic assimilations occur to make pronunciation smoother:
- Sound shifts in 百 (Hundreds):
- 100: 百 (just ひゃく, never
*いちひゃく) - 200: 二百
- 300: 三百 (rendaku: h → b)
- 400: 四百
- 500: 五百
- 600: 六百 (sokuon + handakuten: ku + hya → ppyaku)
- 700: 七百
- 800: 八百 (sokuon + handakuten: chi + hya → ppyaku)
- 900: 九百
- Sound shifts in 千 (Thousands):
- 1,000: 千 (in everyday speech, just せん, not
*いちせん) - 2,000: 二千
- 3,000: 三千 (rendaku: s → z)
- 4,000: 四千
- 5,000: 五千
- 6,000: 六千
- 7,000: 七千
- 8,000: 八千 (sokuon: chi + sen → ssen)
- 9,000: 九千
The Critical “Rule of One”
Pay close attention to where the digit 一 is required and where it must be dropped:
- 100 is simply 百 — never say
*いちひゃく. - 1,000 is simply 千 — never say
*いちせんin basic counting. - 10,000 MUST have 一: You must say 一万 (ichiman). Saying bare
*まんby itself is a major grammatical mistake! - Likewise, 100,000,000 is 一億 (ichioku), never bare
*おく.
Assembling Multi-Digit Numbers
Combine the tiers from largest to smallest, exactly as written:
- 3,450: 三千四百五十
- 8,624: 八千六百二十四
- 75,000: 七万五千 (literally 7 myriads + 5 thousands)
- 320,000: 三十二万 (32 myriads)
In Dialogue
- Clerk
お会計は全部で三千八百円になります。
Your total comes to 3,800 yen.
- Customer
はい、一万円札からお願いします。
Here, from a 10,000-yen note, please.
Quick Check
Select the correct reading for the number 10,000.