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Grammar detail: Japanese dates
Japanese dates
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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 |
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.| 季節 | きせつ | season |
| 春 | はる | spring |
| 梅雨 | つゆ | tsuyu - the rainy season |
| 夏 | なつ | summer |
| 秋 | あき | autumn / fall |
| 冬 | ふゆ | winter |
As a side note, 梅雨 is a good example of
あ
当
てじ
字
'ateji', the idea of assigning a common word as the phonetic reading of (etymologically) unrelated 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 the full article on あてじ for more information.See also:
Kanji used in this grammar
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