Vocabulary

• 3,000 is ‘san-zen’ instead of ‘san-sen’; the suffix is “-sen” for all the other numbers.

Sample sentences

I also want to eat something with you.

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Comments

The following comments explain some of the grammar in more detail.

Nouns

1,000 – 9,000

The following are the numbers from 1,000 to 9,000:

Some of these numbers have forms different from the ones we use for time:

en – えん,円

The name of the Japanese currency, ‘en’, can be confused with the counter for years, ‘nen’:

‘sen en’ and ‘sen nen’, and ‘man en’ and ‘man nen’, sound very similar, specially when speaking fast. Other than context, we can make them clear either pausing between the two words, i.e., “sen en” vs. “sen nen”, or by pronouncing the currency as ‘ien’ when confusion can arise, “sen ien” vs “sen nen”; in the latter case, the name of the currency sounds as ‘Yen’ to the non-Japanese ear.

Conjunctions

soshite – そして

and…; and then…; thus…; and now…; and finally…

We use ‘soshite’ to glue sentences together:

one thousand yen and two thousand yen… is three thousand yen.
sen en soshite ni-sen en… san-zen en desu.
せん　えん　そして　にせん　えん… さんぜん　えん　です。
千円そして二千円…三千円です。

I am going to drink and then I’m going to eat.
nomi-masu soshite tabe-masu.
のみます　そして　たべます。
飲みますそして食べます。