40 in Japanese
四十
Updated June 2026
40 in Japanese is 四十, written よんじゅう in hiragana and read yon-jū. Forty: yon (not shi)
NUMERAL
40
KANJI
四十
HIRAGANA
よんじゅう
ROMAJI
yon-jū
Build-by-place breakdown
Counter-attached forms
How 40 attaches to common counters. Each links to the per-counter deep-dive.
Real sentence examples
四十年前の話です (yon-jū-nen mae no hanashi desu): that’s a story from 40 years ago.
気温は四十度を超えました (kion wa yon-jū-do o koemashita): the temperature exceeded 40 degrees.
Pronunciation and morphology notes
Forty uses yon, not shi. Standard counting (and the tens position in compound numbers) uses the unmarked Sino-Japanese yon. Saying shi-ju is non-standard, though it appears in some literary fixed expressions. Yon-jus-sai (40 years old) is the age. Note the gemination at the gus-sai compound: yon-jus-sai, not yon-ju-sai. NHK Pronunciation Dictionary specifies the gemination.
Frequently asked questions
How do you write 40 in Japanese?
40 is written 四十 in kanji and よんじゅう in hiragana. In romaji (modified Hepburn) it is yon-jū.
What is 40 in hiragana?
40 in hiragana is よんじゅう. Hiragana spells out the reading yon-jū phonetically; the kanji form is 四十.
Related numbers
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