When saying any day of the month, (to my knowledge) all you need to do is add “nichi” at the end of the number. Ex: “jyuu-ni-nichi” = 12th.
However, there are exceptions which is practically the point where I get confused on the most. This brings me to ask:
why say “tsuitachi” when you can say “ichi-nichi”? Also, why are 1-10, 14, 20, and 24 the only exceptions?
3 comments
Tsuitachi means first day of a month (e.g. 二月一日), ichinichi means primarily “one day” (一日乗車券 one day ticket)”.
Keep in mind, that some people sometimes use the “easy” way to read a date even if there is a preferred “exceptional” one, e.g. they will pronounce “二月一日” as “nigatsu ichinichi”. You can think of it as of saying “two times” instead of “twice”.
It’s hard to give an exact reason for the “exceptions”.
A more general answer: In Japanese there are two coexisting systems of numerals: Sino-Japanese (ichi, ni, san, shi, …) and the original Japanese (hitotsu, futatsu, mittsu). For different purposes they are often mixed in various ways. Day in month numerals are a mix of both + a special word for tsuitatchi. One reason is that “shi” (4) is a homohopone of “shi” (死, death). Japanese people have also told me that mixing the systems helps avoid misunderstandings (ichi-shi-shichi sound similar, tsuitachi, yokka, nanoka sound very different). This doesn’t really explain 20 though (“hatsuka” actually sounds very similar to “futsuka”, “nijūnichi” would be more distinctive). But language isn’t always logical.
English is the same way. We don’t say the “ten two” of the month but the “twelfth”. There was an older, historical word that stuck.
> why say “tsuitachi” when you can say “ichi-nichi”?
I mean, why say “first” when you can say “oneth”. It’s just a convention that has to be followed 🤷🏼♂️