How to Say the Months in Japanese (月 Pronunciation Guide)

Months of the year in Japanese are way easier than most languages. While English makes you memorize twelve different names—January, February, March, whatever—the Japanese language just uses numbers. First month, second month, third month. That's basically it.

Well, mostly. There are three ways the system breaks its own rules, and if nobody warns you, you'll mess them up. Let me show you what you actually need to know about the Japanese calendar and how to say months in Japanese without sounding like a robot.

How a month in Japanese works

The Japanese calendar uses a simple pattern. Take a number, add 月 (gatsu), and boom—you've got your calendar month:

See how this works? If you can count one to ten in Japanese, you're basically done. The kanji 月 means both "month" and "moon"—which makes sense, since the original Chinese calendar and traditional calendar systems were based on lunar cycles.

October is 十月 (jūgatsu)—"ten-month." November is 十一月 (jūichigatsu)—"ten-one month." December is 十二月 (jūnigatsu)—"ten-two month." Modern Japan uses this system for everything. No weird Latin roots to memorize.

The three months that screw with you

Of course, the Japanese months aren't completely logical. April, July, and September—these three months use different pronunciations than you'd expect.

April is 四月 (shigatsu / しがつ), not yongatsu

The normal way to say "four" is yon (よん). But for the name of the month, Japanese uses shi (し) instead. You'll write it as 四月 in kanji, but pronounce it shigatsu. Don't ask me why. Just drill it until it sticks.

July is 七月 (shichigatsu / しちがつ), not nanagatsu

Same deal. Standard "seven" is nana (なな), but July uses shichi (しち). Write it as 七月, say shichigatsu. Some Japanese people occasionally use nanagatsu to avoid confusion with ichigatsu (January), but it's pretty rare in daily conversation.

September is 九月 (kugatsu / くがつ), not kyūgatsu

"Nine" is usually kyū (きゅう), but the name of this month uses ku (く). This one's consistent—Japanese speakers always say kugatsu.

Quick pattern: all three exceptions use the older readings from the original Chinese numbers. These are called on'yomi readings if you're learning kanji. But honestly, just memorize these three and you're good.

Month pronunciation in Japanese (the part nobody tells you)

Native Japanese speakers barely voice the final "u" in gatsu. The sound is there, but it's whispered—almost silent.

So when you learn how to say ichigatsu, it doesn't sound like "ee-chee-gah-tsoo." It's closer to "ee-chee-gahts." Your mouth makes the shape of "u" but no sound comes out. This is called vowel devoicing, and it happens throughout the Japanese language with i and u vowels.

If you've wondered why です (desu) sounds like "dess" or すき (suki) sounds like "ski," same thing. The vowels get devoiced between certain consonants.

For October, November, and December, actually pronounce the long "ū" in jū (ten). Say "jooo-gatsu," not "ju-gatsu." That vowel length matters in Japanese pronunciation.

How to count months in Japanese (がつ vs. かげつ vs. つき)

Here's where using Japanese months gets tricky. When you're talking about a specific calendar month—like "January" or "July"—you say gatsu (がつ). But when you count months in Japanese to describe duration, you say kagetsu (かげつ) or getsu (げつ).

Same kanji (月), different readings. This is totally normal for kanji—each character has multiple ways to say it depending on context.

To count months as duration, use the Japanese counter ～か月 (kagetsu):

That か (ka) stuck between the number and 月 is a counter suffix. You can also write it in katakana as ケ or with the kanji 箇 (in formal documents) or 個 (modern variant), but they all read as "ka."

The pronunciation changes for some numbers when you count months in Japanese:

The consonant doubles—this makes the Japanese language flow smoother when speaking. It's the same phonetic pattern you see throughout Japanese counters.

Another twist: when you count months this way, April and July go back to normal number pronunciations. The calendar month is 四月 (shigatsu), but when you say "four months" it's 四か月 (yonkagetsu). July works the same—七月 (shichigatsu) vs. 七か月 (nanakagetsu).

The third way: つき (tsuki)

There's also つき, the native Japanese word for "month" (and "moon"). You can use this with traditional Japanese numbers to count up to three months: 一月 (hitotsuki), 二月 (futatuki), 三月 (mitsuki). This sounds poetic and old-school. Most Japanese people under forty don't really use it in daily conversation anymore.

So yeah, there are three ways to say "month" in Japanese vocabulary: gatsu for calendar months, kagetsu for counting duration, and tsuki for poetic or traditional usage. Welcome to learning Japanese.

Using particles with the months of the year

Japanese grammar needs particles to show relationships between words. Here's how they work with months:

に (ni) marks when something happens:

四月に桜が見えます (Shigatsu ni sakura ga miemasu) = "You can see cherry blossoms in April"

は (wa) marks the month as your topic:

十二月は寒いです (Jūnigatsu wa samui desu) = "December is cold"

から (kara) and まで (made) show time ranges:

五月から八月まで暑いです (Gogatsu kara hachigatsu made atsui desu) = "It's hot from May to August"

If you want to get deeper into this, check out our full guide on Japanese particles. They're easier than you think once you see them in context a bunch of times.

Traditional names for the months (和風月名)

Before 1873, Japan used a lunar calendar with poetic names for months called 和風月名 (wafū getsumei). These traditional Japanese month names are based on seasons in Japanese culture and old agricultural cycles:

These old names of the months reflect the four seasons and traditional Japanese culture. When Japan adopted the Gregorian calendar during the Meiji era in 1873, these names for the months mostly disappeared from everyday use.

You'll still see these traditional names in Japanese poetry, haiku (as seasonal key phrases), formal greeting cards, or period dramas. Some Japanese people use them as personal names—I've met women named Satsuki and Yayoi. And 師走 (Shiwasu) for December sometimes pops up because it captures that chaotic end-of-year energy.

But for normal Japanese vocabulary and using Japanese months in daily conversation? Just stick with the number system. That's what modern Japanese uses.

Writing months: kanji, hiragana, and romaji

You've got options for how to write the name of the month:

Kanji: 一月, 二月, 三月 (most common)
Arabic numerals + kanji: 1月, 2月, 3月 (super common on Japanese calendars)
Hiragana: いちがつ, にがつ, さんがつ (if you're just learning)
Romaji: ichigatsu, nigatsu, sangatsu (for learners, not used by Japanese speakers)

On actual Japanese calendars, you'll usually see Arabic numbers: 1月, 2月, 3月. Clean and easy to read.

How Japanese uses the year in Japanese calendars

The year in Japanese works differently than Western calendars. Modern Japan actually uses two parallel systems:

西暦 (seireki) - Gregorian calendar: The international standard. 2025 is just 2025年.

和暦 (wareki) - Japanese era calendar: Years restart with each emperor's reign. 2025 is 令和7年 (Reiwa 7)—the seventh year of the Reiwa era.

The Japanese calendar was originally based on East Asian lunar traditions borrowed from China. When the Meiji government modernized Japan in the 1870s, they adopted the Gregorian calendar (solar calendar) to align with Western nations. But they kept the era system for cultural continuity.

When you fill out forms in Japan, you'll often see spaces for both the Gregorian year and the Japanese era year. Most Japanese people under thirty just use the Western year in daily conversation, but official documents still prefer the traditional calendar format.

Why this matters for learning Japanese

Look, learning the months in Japanese won't make you fluent. But Japanese time expressions come up constantly—scheduling plans, birthdays, understanding when festivals happen, following along with literally anything time-related in shows or manga.

And it's one of those foundational Japanese vocabulary sets that actually makes sense. The system is logical, the exceptions are manageable, and you can learn how to say all the months in an afternoon.

The real trick is seeing month names in context. You can memorize with flashcards or whatever, but you won't really internalize them until you've encountered Japanese months naturally a bunch of times. That's the difference between "I know this word" and "I can actually use this word without thinking."

Same goes for days of the week in Japanese—once you see these time expressions used in real sentences, they stick way faster than drilling vocabulary lists.

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