What are the Japanese days of the month?

Most of the month days follow the pattern "Sino-Japanese number plus nichi", as in nijūichinichi (21日) for the twenty-first day of the month. The first day of the month is called tsuitachi (一日), and the second to tenth, fourteenth, twentieth, and twenty-fourth days use ka rather than nichi for the day, and native Japanese numerals like futsuka (二日) for the day, rather than ninichi. (See What are the Japanese numbers from 1 to 100? for more on native and Sino-Japanese numbers.) Also, the pronunciation ku of the number nine, rather than kyū, is used for the nineteenth and twenty-ninth.

The names for the days of the month plus kan (間) are also used for a period of days. For example nanokakan (七日間) is "a period of seven days". However, tsuitachi is not used in this form. Nijūyojikan (二十四時間) (twenty-four hours) is a more usual way to say a period of exactly one day.^[1]

Day	Rōmaji	Kana	Kanji	Note
1	Tsuitachi	ついたち	一日	Tsuitachi is the first day of the month. It comes from tsukitachi (月立ち), tsuki (月) (moon) plus tatsu (立つ) (to stand up), via a corruption of the sound.^[2]
2	Futsuka	ふつか	二日
3	Mikka	みっか	三日
4	Yokka	よっか	四日
5	Itsuka	いつか	五日
6	Muika	むいか	六日
7	Nanoka	なのか	七日
8	Yōka	ようか	八日	Mnemonic to distinguish yōka and yokka: Eight days is longer than four days, and this uses a long vowel, whereas yokka (the fourth) uses a short vowel.
9	Kokonoka	ここのか	九日
10	Tōka	とおか	十日
11	Jūichi nichi	じゅういちにち	十一日
12	Jūni nichi	じゅうににち	十二日
13	Jūsan nichi	じゅうさんにち	十三日
14	Jūyokka	じゅうよっか	十四日	This breaks the pattern of using Chinese-style numbers for the tens.
15	Jūgo nichi	じゅうごにち	十五日
16	Jūroku nichi	じゅうろくにち	十六日
17	Jūshichi nichi	じゅうしちにち	十七日
18	Jūhachi nichi	じゅうはちにち	十八日
19	Jūku nichi	じゅうくにち	十九日	Jūku is more common than jūkyū.^[3]
20	Hatsuka	はつか	二十日	This breaks the pattern of using Chinese-style numbers. Hatachi is twenty in the Japanese counting system. See What are the Japanese numbers from 1 to 100?
21	Nijūichi nichi	にじゅういちにち	二十一日
22	Nijūni nichi	にじゅうににち	二十二日
23	Nijūsan nichi	にじゅうさんにち	二十三日
24	Nijūyokka	にじゅうよっか	二十四日
25	Nijūgo nichi	にじゅうごにち	二十五日
26	Nijūroku nichi	にじゅうろくにち	二十六日
27	Nijūshichi nichi	にじゅうしちにち	二十七日
28	Nijūhachi nichi	にじゅうはちにち	二十八日
29	Nijūku nichi	にじゅうくにち	二十九日	Nijūku is more common than Nijūkyū.^[4]
30	Sanjū nichi	さんじゅうにち	三十日
31	Sanjūichi nichi	さんじゅういちにち	三十一日

References

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