Math in Japanese: Division

You finally made it to the last equation you will be doing in the set. You've done a great job and soon you're going to have all the skills you need to count up to 99,999,999. Quite the jump, don't you think? This is the point where numbers will take a turn from what you're used to.

You're going to need to start with the character for "ten thousand".

So as you can see, in Japanese, ten thousand is not written as 十千 (ten thousands), but is instead uses the character 万. This is because the Japanese count in groups of ten thousands (1,0000) as opposed to the English system of thousands (1,000). So instead of writing 百千 (one hundred thousands), you would write 十万 (ten ten thousands).

You can add any number up to 9999 to the front of 万 to make it larger (九千九百九十九万 or 99990000). I found the easiest way to remember this is to not translate 万 into English, but to just think of it as you would think of "dozen". You don't have 48, you have 4 dozen. You don't have 30,000, you have 3万.

So now lets take a look at division

割る means both "to divide" but also "to break". It follows the same use as all the other math words we've learned. Just place it between the numbers and say は (wa) instead of equals. Here are some examples for you to look at:

Four divided by two equals two / 四割る二は二

One hundred divided by four equals twenty-five / 百割る四は二十五

Ten thousand divided by ten equals one thousand / 万割る十は千

Seventy thousand divided by two equals thirty-five thousand / 七万割る二は三十五万

And again, here are some math equations for you to try translating on your own.

1. 5 ÷ 1
2. 24 ÷ 8
3. 360 ÷ 40
4. 20,000 ÷ 16
5. 5500 ÷ 5
6. 860,000 ÷ 40

That's everything for numbers and math for now. Thank you very much for sticking with the lessons. With time and practice, you'll be a pro at counting in Japanese. Be sure to let me know in the comments or by email if there is a theme you want covered next time. Happy Studies.