days of the week months of the year days of the month years expressing absolute time with the...

• Days of the Week

• Months of the Year

• Days of the Month

• Years

• Expressing Absolute Time with the Particle ni

• The Question Word itsu

Japanese 1100-L13b-07-18-2012 1

Class Session 13b Chapter 8

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Days of the Week

• The days of the week in Japanese:

nichi-yōbi ( 日曜日 ) 日 means “sun” Sunday

getsu-yōbi ( 月曜日 ) 月 means “moon” Monday

ka-yōbi ( 火曜日 ) 火 means “fire”Tuesday

sui-yōbi ( 水曜日 ) 水 means “water”Wednesday

moku-yōbi ( 木曜日 ) 木 means “wood” Thursday

kin-yōbi ( 金曜日 ) 金 means “gold”Friday

do-yōbi ( 土曜日 ) 土 means “earth”Saturday

• The first character of the names of the days of the week appear as column heads on a calendar



















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Months of the Year

The months of the year are expressed with a number + gatsu:

ichi-gatsu January

ni-gatsu February

san-gatsu March

shi-gatsu April

go-gatsu May

roku-gatsu June

shichi-gatsu July

hachi-gatsu August

ku-gatsu September

jū-gatsu October

jū-ichi-gatsu November

jū-ni-gatsu December

•Note that the seldom-used shi is used for the 4th month (April)

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Days of the Month

• The days of the month are expressed with a number followed by the ordinal counter nichi, but there are many irregularities (list on pages 155-156 in textbook):

1 tsuitachi 21 ni-jū-ichi-nichi2 futsu-ka 24 ni-jū-yok-ka3 mik-ka 30 san-jū-nichi4 yok-ka 31 san-jū-ichi-nichi5 itsu-ka6 mui-ka7 nano-ka8 yō-ka9 kokono-ka10 tō-ka11 jū-ichi-nichi14 jū-yok-ka15 jū-go-nichi20 hatsuka

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Years

The ordinal counter for years is nen and there are no irregularities in pronunciation:

ichi-nenni-nensan-nenyon-nengo-nenroku-nennana-nenhachi-nenkyū-nensen-kyū-hyaku-kyū-jū-hachi-nen 1998ni-sen-nana-nen 2007ni-sen-jū-ni-nen 2012

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Years

• There are two systems for expressing the year in Japanese:

the Western system based On the Christian era,

the Japanese system based on the reign of emperors

• When a new emperor ascends the throne, a new era name is created and is used until the next new emperor takes the throne

• The current Emperor, Heisei, ascended the throne in 1989 so that was the first year of the reign of Heisei (Heisei gannen); 1990 was the second year (or Heisei ni-nen)

• The current year is Heisei 24 ((current year – 1989) + 1)

• The previous Emperor was Showa, who reigned from 1926 until 1989

• The first year of the reign of Showa (Showa gannen) was 1926 and the last was 1989 (Showa 64)

• The first year of any emperor’s reign is measured from the date of death of the last emperor until the last day of December of that year, and is counted as the first year regardless of how long it actually was.

• The Japanese system date is used on official records in Japan

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Expressing Absolute Time with the Particle ni

• The particle ni is used to mark an event if the time phrase expresses an absolute time such as Monday, 27th or 3 PM

tanaka-san wa san-ji ni kimashita.Mr. Tanaka came at 3 o’clock.

getsuyōbi ni sumisu-san ni aimashita.I met Mr. Smith on Monday.

• The particle ni is NOT used if the time phrase expresses a relative time such as yesterday, last year, or next month, etc.

raigetsu itaria ni ikimasu.I will go to Italy next month.

• Note also that the particle e is never used with time phrases

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The Question Word itsu

• The question word itsu is used to ask when?

• The expected answer can be either absolute time or relative time

• The particle ni is not required with itsu

Itsu amerika ni kimashita ka.When did you come to America?

• For asking what time? use nan-ji (what o’clock)

kinō wa nan-ji ni nemashita ka.What time did you go to bed yesterday

• You can also use other phrases such as:

nan-yōbi what day (of the week)?nan-gatsu what month?

days of the week months of the year days of the month years expressing absolute time with the...

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