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Hello,
I came across this sentence and thought it rather odd…十は七じゃありません
I was wondering, why is 七 pronounced as なな here? If 十 is pronounced as じゅう ,on’yomi, then why shouldn’t 七 be しち？
Does this mean that 七 is pronounced when counting as なな more often than しち? Even though Koichi said that he tends to lean towards しち when counting. Or am I overlooking something here?
Thank you!
I don’t remember where but somewhere Koichi wrote that it doesn’t matter which reading you use, as long as you just count without counting anything specific.
Here it’s just the number nothing specific is counted, so it could be “じゅう は しち じゃありません” as well.Thank you!
七 is a weird one in that its readings tend to be fairly interchangeable. 四 as well, to a slightly lesser extent.
I also believe it might be an age thing. Don’t quote me on this as I can’t remember where I heard it from, but if I’m right, older people tend use shichi and shi and younger use nana and yon, when they’re interchangeable.
That’s quite interesting! Thank you!
Number readings only really matter when counting things or people, etc. For example, 四匹 is Yon hiki because you’re counting four animals, but if you were to count 一二三四, it could be either Ichi, Ni, San, Shi or Ichi, Ni, San, Yon. Same goes with 七、 as long as you’re not counting anything specific, it’s either Shichi or Nana. Otherwise, when counting specific things, it’s Nana.
Otherwise, when counting specific things, it’s Nana.
人, 月 and 時 use しち. Unfortunately, Japanese has exceptions coming out its figurative ears. =P
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