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I have a list referring to days of classes that reads this way:

  • 1日目 - Ichinichime - Day 1
  • 2日目 - Futsukame - Day 2
  • 3日目 - Mikkame - Day 3
  • 4日目 - Yokkame - Day 4
  • 5日目 - Itsukame - Day 5

And so on (until 25).

Why is the romanization of the first day written in Sino Japanese and the rest in native? Shouldn't the English translation be instead "First Day, Second Day", etc.?

naruto
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Stealth
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    `Shouldn't the English translation be instead "First Day, Second Day", etc.?` I don't think there's a difference between `Day 1` (of an event) and `First Day` (of an event), so the English is fine. – dROOOze Apr 23 '18 at 15:15

1 Answers1

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There is a usage difference between [一日]{ついたち} and the rest.

While [二日]{ふつか}, [三日]{みっか}, etc. can refer to both the nth day in a month and n days, [一日]{ついたち} is used for the meaning first day of the month and not one day.

The reason is due to the etymology of ついたち, which is a contraction of [月]{つき}[立]{た}ち (literally the rise of the month > start of the month; see related: Why is 一日 'tsuitachi'?), so the word doesn't have anything to do with one or day; the kanji used are jukujikun. The other kun'yomi are actually native Japanese numbers which count days.

For the count of one day, 一日 can also be pronounced いちじつ, but this is slightly rarer.

dROOOze
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