Months

Hey guys! I know its been a while but I've been busy with my school studies. I'm a junior now and in the world of academics and the nerd world, its the most important year of high school. I'm getting ready to take my SATs and AP exams (ewwww!) in about 3-4 months. So I'm really busy. But anyways what I was trying to say is that in Japanese, months are written in kanji or in hiragana. Just like in the English language, knowing your days of the month is very important in communicating on paper and in speaking. I think the best way of explaining what each month is in Japanese is by showing you a chart in kanji and hiragana form. The katakana form will not be shown because it is not from the English language but from the Japanese language itself. (Katakana is only used when writing English words into Japanese words or I guess writing English words into the Japanese writing system). The video above will supplement on the months in which you can listen to how each month is pronounced. Enjoy!  

Month                  English                     Hiragana              Romaji

一月                  January                            いちがつ               ichi-gatsu

二月                  February                          にがつ                   ni-gatsu

三月                  March                              さんがつ               san-gatsu

四月                  April                                  しがつ               　shi-gatsu

五月                  May                                  ごがつ                　go-gatsu

六月                  June                                ろくがつ               　roku-gatsu

七月                  July                                 しちがつ               　shichi-gatsu

八月                  August                                はちがつ       　　 hachi-gatsu

九月                  September                         　くがつ               ku-gatsu

十月                  October                         じゅうがつ               juu-gatsu

十一月              November                  じゅういちがつ               juu-ichi-gatsu

十二月              December                  じゅうにがつ            　　 juu-ni-gatsu

*Months are basically numbers (1~12) + gatsu. Pay attention to April, July and September. April is shi-gatsu not yon-gatsu, July is shichi-gatsu not nana-gatsu and September is ku-gatsu not kyuu-gatsu. The months are an example of irregularity found in numbers or as it is called when a number can be said in two ways but used differently because shi-gatsu in Japanese literally means 4^th month.

To elaborate on this a little further……

*Both 'shi' and 'yon' are used for counting in Japanese. The reason there are two sounds is because there are two counting methods. When the Japanese asked the Chinese to teach them the characters, they often times adopted some form of Chinese sounds with the character. This dramatically changed the Japanese language long ago. 

Now there are two main ways of counting in Japanese (1-10). The original system was hitotsu, futatsu, mitsu, yottsu (where yon comes from), itsutsu, mutsu, nanatsu, hatsu, kokonotsu, and tou. The adopted method from the Chinese sounds is ichi, ni, san, shi. go roku, shichi, hachi, kyuu, juu. (I will explain on this counting method later).

Now there are two reasons for four and seven being different. First off 'shi' and 'shichi' sound alike. To avoid confusion, many often use 'yon' and 'nana' to differentiate. Also, 'shi' means death in Japanese and just like we don't have a 13th floor in the West, many places don't have a 4th floor here in Japan. 

Now some cases, shi and yon are completely enterchangable. You can count 'ichi, ni, san, shi... or 'ichi, ni, san, yon...'

When it comes to counters (stating a specific number of nouns) it may or may not be interchangeable. 

Shigatsu (literally "4th Month" i.e. April). You CANNOT say 'yongatsu.'