JLPT N5 Kanji – 百, hyaku, 100

This is 5 Minute Kanji, and today we are going to go over a hiking kanji this time, the kanji for hundred.

Mnemonic:

OH, I’m tired. I BIKed and HIKed 100s of miles to see all of Japan.

Onyomi:

ひゃく、びゃく
hyaku, byaku

Kunyomi:

お, もも
o, momo

Like other kanji you use the onyomi, ひゃく to count up. We no longer use the old Japanese counters that end in -つ. You can use the counter 個こ with the onyomi for counting most objects past one hundred. You can say 百個ひゃくこ, for example. お is only used in a handful of words, and もも is considered archaic. You will most likely never see it used that way.

Mnemonic Factory

The best mnemonic is that if you turn it on its side it looks like 100. It also looks like an old-timey plunger detonator that you would see Wily E. Coyote use. I’m not sure how that relates to 100 though. 🙂

For onyomi, you have HIKE, which doesn’t sound a lot like hyaku. However, you can also use HACK or HYACKU, like I’ve HYACKUed into 100s of computers.  You could also potentially use (h)YACK as in to throw up. I HYACKed up all my food after I ate a hundred O’ d’oeuvres (appetizers).

You only really need to have mnemonic for the O sound, which is generally easy enough to work in. You can generally work that into any kind of expression, that starts with OH! like OH boy! OH yeah!

Example Words

How about a few example words where this kanji is used?

Onyomi

For onyomi, we have 百ひゃく for 100. Contrary to the first 10 numbers, the kanji is often used in writing for a hundred. You will still not see it in prices commonly written in Arabic numerals (e.g. 1, 2…)  The びゃく reading is used for 300 – 三百さんびゃく. Keep in mind that there are also ‘unlisted’ readings as well. For example, the reading used for 800 – 八百はっぴゃく.

There are a couple of other common words that use this reading. For example, 百人ひゃくにん means a hundred people. Another tricky problem is the Japanese counting system, they say 百万ひゃくまん, literally a hundred ten thousands, to mean 1,000,000. This can be confusing at first and it is best to practice reading larger numbers early on so that you can get a good understanding of them.

Kunyomi
The もも reading is considered archaic and not often used anymore. You may see it in place names or older Japanese documents, though. The お reading is only commonly used in the word for greengrocer – 八百屋やおや.

Story Review

Can you remember the story from the beginning? Let’s give it a try, and yell out the words that are missing.

__, I’m tired. I ___ed and ___ed ___s of miles to see all of Japan.

Perfect? Let’s give it another try.

__, I’m tired. I ___ed and ___ed ___s of miles to see all of Japan.

Word Review

Can you read these? I’ll give you the kanji and please yell out the reading for each word

百

三百

百人

百万

八百

百日

八百屋*

*Not an N5 word
That’s it for the kanji for a hundred. Please let me know in the comments below if you have any questions. If you’d like to learn more kanji, hit the subscribe button and hit the bell mark to get a notification every time I send out a new video. Also, be sure to check out my other 5 Minute Kanji videos.

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