Hi there. I thought I would talk about a bit unusual topic this time. Learning Math in Japanese. When expressing mathematics in Japanese, here are the things you would notice. To make things easier, I have used only Hiragana’s below rather than using Kanji’s.

I will start with the simple ones below, but first let’s review the numbers 1 through 10 in Japanese.

1 – ichi (いち)

2 – ni (に)

3 – san (さん)

4 – yon or shi (よん、し)

5 – go (ご)

6 – roku (ろく)

7 – nana or shichi (なな、しち)

8 – hachi (はち)

9 – kyu (きゅう)

10- jyu (じゅう)

 

Plus ==> +   tasu (たす)

Minus==> –  hiku (ひく)

Multiply ==> x kakeru (かける)

Divide ==> / waru (わる)

Equal ==> = wa (は* please note this letter is pronounced as “wa”)

With this said, how would you read the following in Japanese?

 

1+ 2 = 3

It is:

ichi tasu ni wa san  (いち　たす　に　は　さん)

How about this one?

2 * 3 = 6

It is:

ni kakeru san wa roku　(に　かける　さん　は　ろく)

10-2=8

will be

jyu hiku ni wa hachi. (じゅう　ひく　に　は　はち)

10 / 5 = 2

will be

jyu waru go wa ni (じゅう　わる　ご　は　に)

 

While we are at the number topic, let’s review some of the higher numbers as well:

20 – ni jyu (にじゅう)

30 – san jyu  (さんじゅう)

40 – yon jyu or shi ju (よんじゅう、しじゅう)

50- go jyu (ごじゅう)

60 – roku jyu (ろくじゅう)

70 – nana jyu (ななじゅう)

80 – hachi jyu (はちじゅう)

90 – kyu jyu (きゅうじゅう)

100 – hyaku (ひゃく)

1000 – sen (せん)

10,000 – ichi man (いちまん)

100,000 – jyu man (じゅうまん)

1,000,000 – hyaku man (ひゃくまん)

10,000,000 – sen man (せんまん)

100,000,000 – ichi oku  (いちおく)

 

Let’s try reading the following equations in Japanese:

26 / 2 = 13

58 – 28 = 30

20 * 30 = 600

45 + 55 = 100

Were you able to read them?

Here are the answers:

26 / 2 = 13

nijyu roku waru ni wa jyu san (にじゅうろく　わる　に　は　じゅうさん)

58 – 28 = 30

gojyu hachi hiku nijyu hachi wa sanjyu (ごじゅうはち　ひく　にじゅうはち　は　さんじゅう)

20 * 30 = 600

nijyu kakeru sanjyu wa rohhyaku (にじゅう　かける　さんじゅう　は　ろっひゃく)

45 + 55 = 100

yonjyu go tasu gojyu go wa hyaku (よんじゅうご　たす　ごじゅうご　は　ひゃく)

 

This was a simple math in Japanese, but if you have any other related topic that you would like to know, just let me know!