Dates
It’s a date!
If you want to ask someone out to dinner in Japanese, you need to know how to say the date! For months, say the number of the month (for example, October is the 10th month) followed by 月. Then for the day, say the number followed by 日!
十月十九日
October 19th
October 19th
But you have to work a little harder if you want to go out on the 1st through the 10th, or even the 20th! Those days have their own unique pronunciation.
| 1st | 一日 tsuitachi |
| 2nd | 二日 futsuka |
| 3rd | 三日 mikka |
| 4th | 四日 yokka |
| 5th | 五日 itsuka |
| 6th | 六日 muika |
| 7th | 七日 nanoka |
| 8th | 八日 yōka |
| 9th | 九日 kokonoka |
| 10th | 十日 tōka |
| 20th | 二十日 hatsuka |
Every! Single! Time!
The kanji 毎 can attach to lots of words to mean every.
| 毎日 | every day |
| 毎朝 | every morning |
| 毎晩 | every night |
| 毎年 | every year |
| 毎月 | every month |
| 毎週 | every week |
Months on End!
When you tell someone for how many months you do something, you add ヶ月 to the number. So, if something took three months, you’d say 三ヶ月.
二ヶ月かかりました。
It took two months.
It took two months.
The ヶ may look like ケ, but it’s a special character! And keep an eye out for small pronunciation changes:
| 一ヶ月 ikkagetsu | one month |
| 六ヶ月 rokkagetsu | six months |
| 十ヶ月 jukkagetsu | ten months |