6.2 Everyday Spoken Cues: Numbers, Time, Directions & Politeness

Catching Numbers and Counters by Ear

Half of N5 listening turns on a number. The base digits are いち (1), に (2), さん (3), よん/し (4), ご (5), ろく (6), なな/しち (7), はち (8), きゅう/く (9), じゅう (10), then ひゃく (100), せん (1,000), まん (10,000). The catch is that Japanese counters change sound with certain digits. Remember the pattern 1=いっ, 6=ろっ, 8=はっ, 10=じゅっ, which triggers doubled or shifted consonants:

Note that 3 animals is さんびき (h→b), 3rd floor is さんがい (k→g), and 1 and 2 people are irregular (ひとり, ふたり). For everyday objects with no special counter, use the native series ひとつ, ふたつ, みっつ, よっつ, いつつ — so when a shopkeeper says 「みっつ ください」 the answer is three items.

Why counters matter so much. Beginners memorise the digits but freeze when a counter attaches, because the sound shifts make いっぴき (one animal) barely resemble ひき. On the once-only audio you have no time to reconstruct the arithmetic, so drill the shifted forms until いっぽん, さんびき, ろっかい, and はっぷん arrive as single pre-learned chunks rather than sums you compute mid-sentence. A frequent point-comprehension item plays two numbers — say a price and a quantity — and asks for only one, or asks for a total; if you must multiply, write both figures down the instant you hear them ("200円 × 3") instead of trusting a memory that the next sentence will overwrite.

Time and Dates

Clock hours use 〜じ and minutes use 〜ふん/〜ぷん; half past is はん. Three hour-readings are irregular and heavily tested: 4:00 = よじ (never しじ), 7:00 = しちじ, 9:00 = くじ. AM = ごぜん, PM = ごご. The single biggest number trap is じゅうご (15) versus ごじゅう (50) — 3:15 is さんじ じゅうごふん, while 3:50 is さんじ ごじゅっぷん. Missing the order flips the answer.

Calendar days 1–10 and the 20th are irregular and worth memorising: ついたち (1st), ふつか (2nd), みっか (3rd), よっか (4th), いつか (5th), むいか (6th), なのか (7th), ようか (8th), ここのか (9th), とおか (10th), はつか (20th). Relative-time cues also decide answers: きょう (today), あした (tomorrow), きのう (yesterday), まいにち (every day), せんしゅう (last week), らいしゅう (next week).

Common time mistakes. Three errors recur on every sitting. First, reading しじ for 4:00 — it is always よじ. Second, hearing よじ (four o'clock) but marking よっか (the 4th of the month); hours take じ, dates take か or にち, and confusing the two swaps a time answer for a date answer. Third, dropping はん: 「くじはん」 is 9:30, not 9:00. When the pre-question is なんじ, write the hour the instant you catch it, then append the minutes — many N5 dialogues state an hour, digress, and then correct it ('at nine… actually, let's make it nine-thirty'), so the last time mentioned, not the first, is usually the answer.

Days of the Week and the Calendar

The weekday kanji follow the elements in a fixed order — 月火水木金土日 — read げつようび (Mon), かようび (Tue), すいようび (Wed), もくようび (Thu), きんようび (Fri), どようび (Sat), にちようび (Sun). Listen for the syllable before ようび: 「どようび」 = Saturday. A quick response like 「こんどの どようびに パーティーが あります」 hinges on catching do- for Saturday.

Prices and Shopping

Prices end in 〜えん (yen) and are asked with いくら (how much). You may also hear shop phrases such as いらっしゃいませ (welcome), うりきれ (sold out), and the polite refusal けっこうです (no thank you). When a size is うりきれ and the customer says けっこうです, they leave without buying — a very common Mondai-2 trap that rewards catching the negative meaning of a positive-sounding word.

Question-and-Answer Patterns and Negatives

Many items are a two-line exchange in which the reply holds the answer, so learn the standard response frames. A はい／いいえ question is answered with 「はい、そうです」 (yes, that's right) or 「いいえ、ちがいます」 (no, that's wrong). An offer is accepted with 「おねがいします」 (yes please) and refused with 「けっこうです」 or 「だいじょうぶです」 (no thank you). Negatives are decisive: 〜ません and 〜ませんでした turn a yes into a no, and 「まだです」 means not yet, i.e. the action has NOT happened — so a speaker who says 「まだ たべていません」 has not eaten, and any option implying they ate is wrong. Because these markers land at the END of the sentence, force yourself to listen to the tail of every line rather than committing to an answer from its opening words.

Directions: Right, Left, Straight, Turn

Direction questions (どこ, where) pack cues into one sentence. Core words: みぎ (right), ひだり (left), まっすぐ (straight), まがる (to turn), かど (corner), しんごう (traffic light), つぎ (next), となり (next door), まえ (front), うしろ (behind). A typical line — 「この みちを まっすぐ いって、しんごうを みぎに まがると あります」 — means go straight and turn right at the light. Trace the path with your pen; the final turn (みぎ vs ひだり) is what the answer picture shows.

Direction questions almost always save the crucial turn for the end, so resist committing early. A line may send you まっすぐ (straight) for a while, name a コンビニ or ぎんこう as a landmark, and only then finish with 「ふたつめの かどを ひだりです」 (turn left at the second corner). The landmark is a distractor placed to pull your eye to the wrong picture; the decisive information is the final ひだり／みぎ combined with the ordinal — ひとつめ (first), ふたつめ (second), みっつめ (third). Draw the route as a simple line with an arrow at each turn as you listen, and the picture that matches your last arrow is the answer.

Floors, Places and Requests

Building floors use 〜かい (階) — remember さんがい (3rd) and the ちか (basement, ちかいっかい = B1). Requests use 〜てください (please do); instructions in Mondai 1 often arrive as 「〜に きてください」 or 「〜で まってください」. Classroom phrases to know by ear include 「もう すこし ゆっくり はなして ください」 (please speak more slowly) and 「もう いちど おねがいします」 (once more, please).

Listening for the KEY Word

Every Mondai-1/2 question hides its answer behind a single question word. Map it, then hunt only for that fact:

Discipline your ear to this one-cue habit and the once-only audio stops feeling fast. In practice this means that the moment the pre-question ends you already know the shape of the answer — a time, a name, a number, a place — and can let every unrelated word wash past. Beginners try to understand each whole sentence and drown in it; strong test-takers filter for a single fact and stay afloat. Combine this cue-filter with the negative-watching described above, and the highest-weighted section of the N5 turns from its biggest threat into its biggest source of points.