Hello Everyone,
In today’s lesson we will see how Japanese people indicate months.
What month is it?
The word 月 ( がつ ) [gatsu] is the word meaning /month/ in Japanese.
Note: You may already have noticed the kanji 月 in the word 月曜日 ( げつようび ) [getsuyo~bi] /Monday/. This kanji is the kanji for the Moon ( つき ) [tsuki] and is additionally used for Monday – the Moon day – and months, because months were aligned on lunar cycles in ancient times. Be cautious also not to mix the pronunciations げつ[getsu] / がつ[gatsu].
To ask “What month are we in?” in Japanese, we use similar structure as the one used to ask time or day of week:
Months
Then indicating months in Japanese is really easy. A month name in Japanese is the month number followed by 月 ( がつ ) [gatsu] /month/. Therefore all you have to know is how to count from 1 to 12, and the word 月 ( がつ ) [gatsu] /month/:
一月 | いちがつ | ichi gatsu | January |
二月 | にがつ | ni gatsu | February |
三月 | さんがつ | san gatsu | March |
四月 | しがつ | shi gatsu | April |
五月 | ごがつ | go gatsu | May |
六月 | ろくがつ | roku gatsu | June |
七月 | しちがつ | shichi gatsu | July |
八月 | はちがつ | hachi gatsu | August |
九月 | くがつ | ku gatsu | September |
十月 | じゅうがつ | ju~ gatsu | October |
十一月 | じゅういちがつ | ju~ichi gatsu | November |
十二月 | じゅうにがつ | ju~ni gatsu | December |
Points to notice here are the pronunciations for 4 (し and not よん) and 7 (しち and not なな), and the shorter pronounciation for 9 (く and not きゅう). Isn’t it simple? OK, let’s practice now.
Exercises
Find the translation:
That’s it for this lesson. Next time we will discover days of month.
Bye!
Stéphane