Does 一二三 mean "1 2 3" or "123"?


Is it possible, without any context, to tell whether 一二三 means "one, two,
three" or "one hundred twenty-three"?

In English, this kind of ambiguity would be removed by adding spaces between
each digit: "1 2 3".

Is this even an issue in Japanese?




Numbers written with Arabic numerals are usually **positional**. The place
value of each digit depends on its position in the sequence:

> **1** _b_ 2 + **2** _b_ 1 + **3** _b_ 0 = **123**

Numbers written with kanji are typically **non-positional**. Although they
usually appear in the same order, rather than use position alone to indicate
their place value, they're generally combined with characters like 百 or 万,
while zeroes are left unwritten. (Some numerals, like 十, 百, [and
千](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/14845/1478) can appear as numbers
without being preceded by 一.) So, as Tokyo Nagoya says, _one hundred and
twenty three_ would be written:

> 百二十三

This is interpreted as:

> **100** + **2** × **10** + **3** = **123**

However, this is only **typically** true. There are a number of situations in
which kanji are used as a **positional** numeral system. For example, you
might find a receipt that says `一二三円`, meaning "one hundred and twenty three
yen". Or you might find a reference to page one hundred and twenty three in
the index of a book written with kanji:

![Picture of index from a 漢和辞典 illustrating 一二三 meaning
123](https://i.stack.imgur.com/gUIm6.jpg)

In other contexts, the kanji 一二三 might be used to write the name
[一二三{ひふみ}](http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%8A%A0%E8%97%A4%E4%B8%80%E4%BA%8C%E4%B8%89).

The truth is, you'll have to use your common sense to figure out what 一二三
means in a particular context. Is it a name, a listing like "one, two, three",
or a number like "one hundred and twenty three"? Without context, it's
impossible to say for sure--even if we can make a reasonable guess.

Let's talk about English for a moment. If I asked you what the word _bear_
meant, you might think I was referring to [a type of
animal](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bear). But without context, you'd have no
idea whether I was asking about the noun or [the
verb](http://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/bear)--and there's
no way to pick one meaning or the other, even if a particular meaning is more
likely or comes to mind first. In short, context is required.




Numbers written with Arabic numerals are usually **positional**. The place
value of each digit depends on its position in the sequence:

> **1** _b_ 2 + **2** _b_ 1 + **3** _b_ 0 = **123**

Numbers written with kanji are typically **non-positional**. Although they
usually appear in the same order, rather than use position alone to indicate
their place value, they're generally combined with characters like 百 or 万,
while zeroes are left unwritten. (Some numerals, like 十, 百, [and
千](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/14845/1478) can appear as numbers
without being preceded by 一.) So, as Tokyo Nagoya says, _one hundred and
twenty three_ would be written:

> 百二十三

This is interpreted as:

> **100** + **2** × **10** + **3** = **123**

However, this is only **typically** true. There are a number of situations in
which kanji are used as a **positional** numeral system. For example, you
might find a receipt that says `一二三円`, meaning "one hundred and twenty three
yen". Or you might find a reference to page one hundred and twenty three in
the index of a book written with kanji:

![Picture of index from a 漢和辞典 illustrating 一二三 meaning
123](https://i.stack.imgur.com/gUIm6.jpg)

In other contexts, the kanji 一二三 might be used to write the name
[一二三{ひふみ}](http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%8A%A0%E8%97%A4%E4%B8%80%E4%BA%8C%E4%B8%89).

The truth is, you'll have to use your common sense to figure out what 一二三
means in a particular context. Is it a name, a listing like "one, two, three",
or a number like "one hundred and twenty three"? Without context, it's
impossible to say for sure--even if we can make a reasonable guess.

Let's talk about English for a moment. If I asked you what the word _bear_
meant, you might think I was referring to [a type of
animal](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bear). But without context, you'd have no
idea whether I was asking about the noun or [the
verb](http://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/bear)--and there's
no way to pick one meaning or the other, even if a particular meaning is more
likely or comes to mind first. In short, context is required.

