"It took eight days."
Translation:八日かかりました。
8 Comments
I'm still confused about these alternative readings for the numbers when they're paired with days. What are all of them? And is this the only context in which they're used?
705
It is normal to get confused. I would say this is the most difficult and inconsistent counting system I know.
Here are all the words for days of a month. They don't apply to other things except for counting the number of days in a period (but still with a twist). By "normal cases" I mean the counting resembles numbers alone themselves while "special cases" just seem to be out of way. In special cases 日 often reads か rather than にち.
1 -10 all special cases
1 日 ： つい たち
2 日 ： ふ つ か
3 日 ： みっ か
4 日 ： よっ か
5 日 ： いつか
6 日 ： むい か
7 日 ： な の か
8 日 ： よう か
9 日 ： ここ の か
10 日 ： と おか
11 - 20 normal except 14, 19, 20
11 日 : じゅうい ちにち
12 日 ： じゅう に にち
13 日 ： じゅう さん にち
14 日 ： じゅう よっ か
15 日 ： じゅうご にち
16 日 ： じゅう ろくに ち
17 日 ： じゅうし ちにち
18 日 ： じゅう は ちにち
19 日 ： じゅ うく にち
20 日 ： は つか
21 - 31 normal except 24, 29
21 日 ： に じゅうい ちにち
22 日 ： に じゅう に にち
23 日 ： に じゅう さん にち
24 日 ： に じゅう よっ か
25 日 ： に じゅうご にち
26 日 ： に じゅう ろくに ち
27 日 ： に じゅうし ちにち
28 日 ： に じゅう は ちにち
29 日 ： に じゅ うく にち
30 日 ： さん じゅう にち
31 日 ： さん じゅうい ちにち
I think, it's necessary to add this to the theory part of the lesson. I have learned this already before going on Duolingo (via Tae Kim's Guide which I strongly recommend), but it's not very useful to encounter an exception before you even know how to pronounce it
And what's more, if the task is to write the sentence yourself, the voices read the parts separately (e.g. hachi + nichi when the real pronunciation is, of course, youka)
In short, I would suggest to disable the 'voiceover' somehow so it doesn't mislead anyone who's only beginning to grasp the amount of exceptions in Japanese. Or to allow to hear the real pronunciation after completing the task (i.e. I've constructed the sentence correctly I get to hear the correct pronunciation)
I believe it's possible since we almost always get reversed tasks with the same sentences and correct pronunciation
P.S. Also, it would be really nice to implement a feature to 'favorite' a comment so they are all saved in one place. For example, I think, many people would like to save this comment for future
Finally, here's the page from Tae Kim with relevant grammar: http://www.guidetojapanese.org/learn/grammar/numbers
1日 tsuitachi 2日 futsuka 3日 mikka 4日 yokka 5日 itsuka 6日 muika 7日 nanoka 8日 youka 9日 kokonoka 10日 touka
They're used both in this instance and in referring to days of the month. So if I'm saying my birthday is October sixth, that would be something like お誕生日は十月六日 (otanjoubi wa juugetsu muika). Someone else will have to say what they all are, because I can't remember.
It's terrible that the word by word doesn't give the correct pronunciation
Do you mean the difference between when it is only a number (はち) and when it is counting something?
Depending on the thing you count the numbers can change. For the sentence above the days are: 1 いちにち, 2 ふつか, 3 みっか, 4 よっか, 5 いつか, 6 むいか, 7 なのか, 8 ようか, 9 ここのか, 10 とおか, 11 じゅういちにち, etc.
