Japanese numbers are easy until four (一 二 三 四)

The first three Japanese numbers are the easiest kanji there are: 一 (ichi), one, is one line, 二 (ni), two, is two lines, and 三 (san), three, is three. Then 四, four, breaks the pattern. It looks nothing like four lines, and you’ll hear it read two ways, yon and shi. Both quirks have a story behind them.

One, two, three: counting rods

一, 二 and 三 have barely changed in more than 3,000 years. On oracle bones, the numbers one to four were all written by stacking up horizontal strokes, and the scholar Xu Zhongshu thought the strokes stood for counting rods, the little sticks once used for arithmetic. Four was simply four lines: 亖.

Why four broke the pattern

One explanation is that four stacked lines were easy to misread, especially in vertical writing. Whatever the reason, in the late Spring and Autumn period, some 2,500 years ago, a different character started to stand in for four, and by the Qin dynasty it was the standard. That character was 四.

So what did 四 picture? Some scholars think it was a drawing of breath coming out of the mouth and nose, a word for breath that was later written 呬. 四 sounded like the word for four, so it was borrowed for the number, and a 口, mouth, was added to make 呬 for the old meaning. The video is right that 四 breaks the pattern: it was never a picture of four things.

Yon or shi?

四 has a Chinese reading, し (shi), and a native Japanese one, よ (yo), and modern Japanese mixes them:

• し (shi) stays in fixed words: 四月 (shigatsu), April, 四季 (shiki), the four seasons, 四角 (shikaku), a square, and 四国 (Shikoku), the island.
• よん (yon) is the usual way to say four on its own, and in most counting: 四十 (yonjuu), forty, 四本 (yonhon), four bottles or pencils. It grew out of yo, perhaps influenced by the n of san, three.
• よ (yo) appears in a few time and people words: 四時 (yoji), four o’clock, 四人 (yonin), four people, 四日 (yokka), the fourth of the month.

Why avoid shi? It sounds exactly like 死 (shi), death. That’s one reason yon is preferred, and why some hospitals and apartment buildings in Japan avoid the number 4. Another reason may be plain clarity: shi is easy to mishear next to ichi, one, and shichi, seven. Seven leads the same double life: 七 is shichi or nana.

How to use it

• 四月に日本へ行きます。

  Shigatsu ni Nihon e ikimasu.

  I'm going to Japan in April.

• 四人です。

  Yonin desu.

  There are four of us. (at a restaurant)

• 今、四時です。

  Ima, yoji desu.

  It's four o'clock now.

• りんごを四つください。

  Ringo o yottsu kudasai.

  Four apples, please.

• April is always shigatsu, never yongatsu.
• Four o’clock is yoji, not yonji, and four people is yonin.
• Counting things with the native counter, it’s 四つ (yottsu): one to four go ひとつ, ふたつ, みっつ, よっつ (hitotsu, futatsu, mittsu, yottsu).
• In horizontal text you’ll often see Arabic numerals instead: 4月, 4時, 4人. They’re read exactly the same way.

Words with the same kanji

Remember it

Three lines for three, and then the lines run out of room. Forget the stack: think of 四 as a box with four sides, like a 四角, a square. And when in doubt, say yon.

The kanji in this lesson

Tap Draw it to watch the stroke order. Numbers show where each stroke starts.

Draw it

Draw it

Draw it

Draw it

Sources

• Multi-function Chinese Character Database (CUHK): 四
• Wiktionary: 四
• Wikipedia: Tetraphobia

Written by the Chirami team with the help of AI, then checked against JMdict and KANJIDIC2. How we write lessons. Spotted a mistake? Email support@brightsmilesolutions.org.