40 in Japanese
四十
Updated May 2026
Forty: yon (not shi)
NUMERAL
40
KANJI
四十
HIRAGANA
よんじゅう
ROMAJI
yon-jū
Build-by-place breakdown
4 x 10 = 40 (yon + ju = yon-ju)
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.
Related numbers
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