In this skill
Take Numbers 11–99 first. Months and dates past the 10th are built on that skill’s composed numbers, and the drills assume its ear.
The core’s answer to dates is honest and it works: weekdays, kyou / ashita / kinou, itsu desu ka for “when,” and kaite kudasai when a real date has to change hands. This skill is for what those can’t catch — the clerk confirming your checkout as juuyokka, a sign moving the festival to 二十日, a booking call that needs “from the 3rd to the 5th” said out loud. The core stays sufficient without it; take this when you want dates to land as dates.
Here’s the shape of what you’re buying. Months are nearly free: number + gatsu, twelve words, three of which borrow the hour set’s alternate digits (shi, shichi, ku — the same three outfits you met in yo-ji, shichi-ji, ku-ji). Days 1–10 are the real purchase: ten little words from an older layer of Japanese, cousins of hitotsu / futatsu / mittsu, and Japan uses them daily. Days 11–31 are number + nichi with a short list of traps. That’s the entire system.
As always: tap each item and listen first, say it back, then check yourself against the date that appears. Tap again to listen as often as you like.
The months
Number + gatsu, in order. April, July, and September take the alternate digits — never yon-gatsu, nana-gatsu, or kyuu-gatsu:
Days 1–10: the ten little words
No numbers inside these — each is its own word, and together they cover most of the dates you’ll actually hear (checkouts, holds, sales, holidays cluster early in the month). Listen for the family resemblance to hitotsu / futatsu / mittsu:
The pair to over-drill is yokka (4th) / youka (8th) — one held vowel apart, and hotels genuinely care which one you mean.
Days 11–31: the regular zone and its traps
From the 11th on it’s the number you already own plus nichi — juuichi-nichi, nijuugo-nichi, sanjuuichi-nichi. Four traps ride inside the range: the 14th and 24th borrow yokka, the 17th and 19th switch to the alternate digits (juushichi, juuku), and the 20th is a word of its own:
Full dates, at speed
Month first, then day — the reverse of American habit, the same as Japanese addresses: big unit before small. These seven mix the traps into real dates:
The relative calendar
Six words the core deliberately skipped, all free once you own kyou / ashita / kinou and shuu / getsu:
Years, briefly
Years are just the composed number plus nen — you’ll meet them read aloud from forms and reservation screens more than in conversation:
Saying a date
The listening drills above are the skill; these six are the speaking dividend — real dates dropped into frames you’ve owned since the core:
Mikka kara itsuka made, onegaishimasu.
The hotel-booking sentence: kara and made doing exactly what they did for opening hours, now spanning nights.
Ashita wa nan-nichi desu ka.
nan-nichi — “what day of the month,” built like nan-ji. The answer comes back in the words you just drilled.
Yasumi wa nan-gatsu desu ka.
nan-gatsu — “what month,” same construction one size up.
Tanjoubi wa juugatsu tooka desu.
tanjoubi — birthday. Hotels and forms ask; now you can answer out loud instead of pointing at your passport.
Raishuu, Kyoto ni ikimasu.
Asatte, kaerimasu.
The relative words drop into sentences exactly where kyou and ashita always went — time word first, frame unchanged.
Vocabulary reference
| # | Romaji | English | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | tanjoubi | birthday | Tanjoubi wa juugatsu tooka desu. |
| 2 | nan-gatsu | what month | Yasumi wa nan-gatsu desu ka. |
| 3 | nan-nichi | what day of the month | Ashita wa nan-nichi desu ka. |
Anki deck
The page teaches the sets; the deck builds the speed: download the Calendar Anki deck. Date cards are audio-first — hear juuyokka, know it’s the 14th before the reveal. The six speaking sentences ride along as ordinary sentence cards.