53852


In the anime _Love Live_ , when the nine girls count from one to nine in
Japanese, they say:

> Ichi ni san **yon** go roku **nana** hachi kyuu

And not:

> Ichi ni san **shi** go roku **shichi** hachi kyuu

* * *

What is the reason?


CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-08-03T05:54:29.400
53850
2020-02-15T08:30:15.177
2020-02-15T08:30:15.177
question
japanese-language love-live
Love Live: Yon, nana, and not shi, shichi? (Counting from 1 to 9)


Four (四) being Yon not being Shi, this is because in Japanese Death is written
as 死 and pronounced as Shi

> There are six unlucky numbers in Japanese. Traditionally, 4 is unlucky
> because it is sometimes pronounced shi, which is the word for death.
> Sometimes levels or rooms with 4 don't exist in hospitals or hotels.
> Particularly in the maternity section of a hospital, the room number 43 is
> avoided because it can literally mean "stillbirth". (死産 - shizan: 死 -
> death/to die and 産 - childbirth/produce).

[Japanese superstitions > Linguistic superstition > Numbers > Unlucky
Numbers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_superstitions#Unlucky_Numbers)

* * *

Seven (七) being Nana and not Shichi is sometimes in the same boat because of
the same superstition above, however

> 7, when pronounced with "shichi", sounds similar to the number four (四 shi).
> It is considered a good number since 7 symbolizes "Togetherness".

[Japanese superstitions > Linguistic superstition > Numbers > Lucky
Numbers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_superstitions#Lucky_Numbers)

* * *

Nine (九) in Japanese is [Kyuu](https://l-lingo.com/free-lessons/en/learn-
japanese/numbers-1-10.html) so i believe you are hearing it wrong.

However it should be noted that 9 can be pronounced as Ku however in this
instance it is like Shi as

> Number 9 is sometimes pronounced ku — with the same pronunciation as agony
> or torture. Combs (kushi) are rarely given as presents as the name is
> pronounced the same as 9 4.

[Japanese superstitions > Linguistic superstition > Numbers > Unlucky
Numbers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_superstitions#Unlucky_Numbers)

and i have never been taught to use Ku1

* * *

1: only discovered Ku when i looked up Wikipedia for 7, in all my classes it
has always been Kyuu


CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-08-03T06:42:00.650
53852
2019-08-03T06:42:00.650
1587
53850
answer