How to say "First year" in Japanese

If you are wondering what's the Japanese word for "First year" you've come to the right place!

the Japanese word for "First year" is "Gannen", written in japanese as "元年".

Here's a more detailed explanation:

The noun '元年 (がんねん)' refers to the first year of an era or reign. It is often used to denote the starting point of a new calendar system, imperial reign, or other significant event. For example: The first year of the Meiji era - (明治元年). The first year of the new Emperor's reign - (新天皇の元年).

The Kanji are characters that represent meanings. As you can see, this word is made up of 2 Kanji:

The kanji "元" means "Origin" and can be read as "Gen" and "Moto". And The kanji "年" means "Year" and can be read as "Nen" and "Toshi".

Now, let's make sure you understand this word the other way around too.

What does "Gannen" mean in japanese?

"Gannen" means "First year" .

To learn more about the kanji in this word, checkout this pages:

If you also want to learn how to write this word in Japanese, you can checkout this page:

How to write "First year" in Japanese

To make really sure you learn this word, I've prepared an interactive lesson for you. You are going to learn the readings and meanings of this word and of the characters that comprise it.

But first, you need to know a little bit about Hiragana and Katakana.

Hiragana and katakana are japanese syllabaries, this means that each character represents a syllable.

This are the characters you need to know for this lesson:

The hiragana "げ" is read as "ge". The hiragana "ん" is read as "n". The hiragana "も" is read as "mo". The hiragana "と" is read as "to". The hiragana "ね" is read as "ne". The hiragana "し" is read as "shi". And The hiragana "が" is read as "ga".

About kanji, you need to know that most Kanji have two types of readings: Kunyomi, based on native japanese pronunciation. And onyomi, based on chinese pronunciation.