Thursday, 21 July 2016

numbers - Are kanji typically used in times and dates?


Are kanji typically for numbers used in times and dates?


For example, would "七" and "十五" in the first sentence, and "九" and "三" in the second sentence be normal Japanese? (I'm aware that the following uses hiragana instead of kanji in some circumstances, such as "いま" being used instead of "今")



いま、七時十五分です。


あしたは九月三日木よう日です。




About writing numbers using Japanese numerals vs using Arabic numerals implies that "十月九日", which uses kanji for numbers, would be typical Japanese.



Answer



In 12 years living in Tokyo the only place I see kanji numbers is on some restaurant menus and places going for an old-fashioned look. Arabic numbers are the norm for times, dates etc. in almost all aspects of daily life. Kanji is standard for labels though.


So your examples would be typically be written as:


今、7時15分です。( 7:15 much more common for time of day, 7時15分 more common for duration )


明日は9月3日木よう日です。(I see 木曜日 much more often, don't ever remember seeing 木よう日. Maybe in an elementary school - 曜 is a lot for grade 2.)


I will often text my spouse and Japanese friends in all hiragana. They say it's awkward to read and they often respond in a mix of hiragana and kanji, but that's just for me.


If by some chance you are learning from a book written for children, I would suggest you change now. It's a rather different process.


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