Japanese Lesson for beginners 4-8 how to read phone numbers in japanese みなさん、こんばんは。 きょう は、電話番号[denwa bangou](phone number)です。 We have crammed quite a few things into one's head at once, Lets have a break. You remember how to count numbers in Japanese, right? Just in case... 0 [zero] 1 [ichi] 2 [ni] 3 [san] 4 [shi/yon] 5 [go] 6 [roku] 7 [shichi/nana] 8 [hachi] 9 [kyuu] 10 [juu] So I'll read a phone number below. Please listen carefully, especially 2 and 5. and hyphen as well. 電話番号[denwa bangou]は、09 -1234 - 5678 です。 What did you think? hyphen was easy, wasn't it? I said "の” instead of "-". What about numbers? Did you realise that I read 2 and 5 slowly so that they have long sound and you can hear like 2 [nii] and 5[goo] ? That's the point of reading phone numbers. As for 4 and 7, which have 2 ways to read, Personally, I hardly say "shicih" for 7 in reading phone numbers, since it gets misheard easily between 1[ichi] and 7[shichi]. I hardly say "shi" for 4 neither, but I don't know why, maybe same reason of 7, I'm avoiding the mishearing I think. So, 09 - 1234 - 5678 would be [ zero roku no ichi nii san yon no goo roku nana hachi ] What would you say when you want to ask the phone number then? <person's name>さんの うちの 電話番号 は 何番 ですか。 - <person's name>さんの でんわばんごう は なんばん ですか。 the answer would be 09- 1234 - 5678です。 if you want to know the mobile number, 携帯 の 番号 は 何番 ですか。 - けいたい の ばんごう は なんばん ですか。 --- 電話[ でんわ ] : phone 番号[ ばんごう ] : number うち : home in this case. 携帯 [ けいたい ] : a short form of 携帯電話 (mobile phone) 何番[ なんばん ] : which number ? --- では、また！