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Japanese dates are very regular, and generally follow a similar pattern to English.
Days of the week
As with the Western calendar, the days of the week in Japanese are based on traditional elements of the environment. In some cases, the same exact elements are used for the same days of the week, as with
にちようび
日曜日
, which literally means 'sun-day', and refers to the Western Sunday, and
げつようび
月曜日
which means 'moon-day', and refers to Monday.
Each day of the week follows the same three kanji pattern - the first kanji indicates the day, the second is
よう
曜
meaning 'day of the week', and then
ひ
日
meaning 'day' (together read as ようび).
日曜日
にちようび
sun
Sunday
月曜日
げつようび
moon
Monday
火曜日
かようび
fire
Tuesday
水曜日
すいようび
water
Wednesday
木曜日
もくようび
wood
Thursday
金曜日
きんようび
gold
Friday
土曜日
どようび
earth
Saturday
Months of the year
As with the days, the months are also very regular - just a number, followed by 月 (read as がつ), meaning month. You can use the following search syntax to find the months in the dictionary: counter:月.
一月
いちがつ
January
二月
にがつ
February
三月
さんがつ
March
四月
しがつ
April
五月
ごがつ
May
六月
ろくがつ
June
七月
しちがつ
July
八月
はちがつ
August
九月
くがつ
September
十月
じゅうがつ
October
十一月
じゅういちがつ
November
十二月
じゅうにがつ
December
Days of the month
In general the days of the month are formed by combining the
くんよ
訓読
み (Japanese reading, such as みっつ for 三つ) of a number with 日, in this case read as か. However, there are some irregularities which just need to be memorized. For example, the first of the month and the 20th both have special terms; certain days use readings for the number kanji which are slightly different to the normal counting forms (eg むいか for the 6th).
You can use the following search syntax to find the days of the month in the dictionary: counter:日.
一日
ついたち
1st
二日
ふつか
2nd
三日
みっか
3rd
四日
よっか
4th
五日
いつか
5th
六日
むいか
6th
七日
なのか
7th
八日
ようか
8th
九日
ここのか
9th
十日
とおか
10th
十一日
じゅういちにち
11th
十二日
じゅうににち
12th
十三日
じゅうさんにち
13th
十四日
じゅうよっか
14th
十五日
じゅうごにち
15th
十六日
じゅうろくにち
16th
十七日
じゅうしちにち
17th
十八日
じゅうはちにち
18th
十九日
じゅうくにち
19th
二十日
はつか
20th
二十一日
にじゅういちにち
21st
二十二日
にじゅうににち
22nd
二十三日
にじゅうさんにち
23rd
二十四日
にじゅうよっか
24th
二十五日
にじゅうごにち
25th
二十六日
にじゅうろくにち
26th
二十七日
にじゅうしちにち
27th
二十八日
にじゅうはちにち
28th
二十九日
にじゅうくにち
29th
三十日
さんじゅうにち
30th
三十一日
さんじゅういちにち
31st
Note: three of these are somewhat unexpected and often cause problems: 四日、八日 and 二十日. The よ in 八日 is often confused for the よ of よっつ, and the は in 二十日 is often confused for the は of はち. These terms are irregular, and result from gradual evolutions from older counting systems. Try to remember: よっか = 4, ようか = 8, and はつか = 20.
Other useful date expressions
Japanese has set expressions to refer to useful dates - note that some of these use unusual readings for the kanji they are written with.
一昨日
おととい
day before yesterday
昨日
きのう
yesterday
今日
きょう
today
明日
あした (can also be read あす)
tomorrow
明後日
あさって
day after tomorrow
Seasons of the year
Japan is generally considered to have the same four seasons as in all northern latitudes - spring, summer, autumn and winter. Sometimes the short period between spring and summer (from late May to early June) known as the
つゆ
梅雨
, the 'rainy season', is considered a fifth season.
'jukujikun', the idea of assigning kanji to a native Japanese word without regard for the usual readings of the kanji. 梅 means 'plum' (the fruit), and is typically read うめ; 雨 means 'rain' and is read あめ. Put together, they convey the idea of 'plum-sized rain', which is quite an evocative way to describe the heavy rain of the つゆ! See grammar point 当て字・熟字訓・義訓 ateji, jukujikun and gikun for more information.
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The Kanshudo usefulness level shows you how useful a grammar point is for you to learn.
Grammar point has a Kanshudo usefulness level of
.
You can view a summary of your mastery of grammar points at different usefulness (or JLPT) levels
here.
Grammar points in our system are rated from 1 to 6, where 1 is the most useful.
A usefulness level of 1 roughly corresponds to the first level of the JLPT, level 5 - i.e., you would be expected to know this grammar if your Japanese was at JLPT 5 level. A usefulness level of 5 roughly corresponds to JLPT 1 (the highest JLPT level).
Some grammar points also have a JLPT badge, indicating they appear in standard lists of required JLPT grammar. Some useful grammar points do not have a JLPT badge. These means that you would generally be expected to know the grammar if your Japanese was at that level, but the grammar point does not appear in standardized lists (which are not necessarily comprehensive).
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Kanshudo tracks your mastery (knowledge) of every kanji, word and grammar point in Japanese individually. In item searches (Kanji search, Word search and Grammar search), you will see a small circle with a number from 0 - 4 next to each item, where zero means 'no mastery' and 4 means 'absolute mastery'. A summary of your mastery data is displayed in your Kanji, Word and Grammar mastery wheels.
The Kanshudo kanji usefulness rating shows you how useful a kanji is for you to learn.
has a Kanshudo usefulness of , which means it is among the most useful kanji in Japanese.
is one of the 138 kana characters, denoted with a usefulness rating of K. The kana are the most useful characters in Japanese, and we recommend you thoroughly learn all kana before progressing to kanji.
All kanji in our system are rated from 1-8, where 1 is the most useful.
The 2136 Jōyō kanji have usefulness levels from 1 to 5, and are denoted with badges like this:
The 138 kana are rated with usefulness K, and have a badge like this:
The Kanshudo usefulness level shows you how useful a Japanese word is for you to learn.
has a Kanshudo usefulness level of , which means it is among the
most useful words in Japanese.
All words in our system
are rated from 1-12, where 1 is the most useful.
Words with a usefulness level of 9 or better are amongst the most useful 50,000 words in Japanese, and
have a colored badge in search results, eg:
Many useful words have multiple forms, and less common
forms have a badge that looks like this:
The JLPT (Japanese Language Proficiency Test, 日本語能力試験) is the standard test of Japanese language ability for non-Japanese.
would first come up in level
N.
Kanshudo displays a badge indicating which level of the JLPT words, kanji and grammar points might first be used in:
indicates N5 (the first and easiest level)
indicates N1 (the highest and most difficult)
You can use Kanshudo to study for the JLPT. Kanshudo usefulness levels for kanji, words and grammar points map directly to JLPT levels, so your mastery level on Kanshudo is a direct indicator of your readiness for the JLPT exams.
Kanshudo usefulness counts up from 1, whereas the JLPT counts down from 5 - so the first JLPT level, N5, is equivalent to Kanshudo usefulness level .
The JLPT vocabulary lists were compiled by Wikipedia and Tanos from past papers. Sometimes the form listed by the sources is not the most useful form. In case of doubt, we advise you to learn the Kanshudo recommended form. Words that appear in the JLPT lists in a different form are indicated with a lighter colored 'shadow' badge, like this: .
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The pitch accent markings show you how to pronounce a word. A line underneath a kana symbol indicates low pitch, and a line above indicates high pitch. A vertical line at the end indicates the pitch of the next sound in a sentence using the word is different to the last sound of the word. The number(s) to the right of the markings show how this pitch is represented in a Japanese dictionary.
For more information, see our comprehensive guide:
Wherever you see the green star,
you can tag any kanji, word or grammar point for future reference in your
Favorites list, which is accessible from the main menu.
You can automatically create flashcards from your Favorites,
or use Quick Study to study them any time.
Wherever you see the flashcard icon,
you can automatically create a new flashcard or view flashcard status.
Flashcards can be created for any kanji, word, grammar point or example sentence on Kanshudo.
