How to say "Last year" in Japanese | 昨年

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

the Japanese word for "Last year" is "Sakunen", written in japanese as "昨年".

Here's a more detailed explanation:

The Japanese noun '昨年 (さくねん)' means 'last year.' It is used to refer to the year immediately preceding the current year. This word is commonly used in both written and spoken Japanese to discuss past events or activities. For example: Last year I was traveling in Japan 「昨年は日本を旅行していました」 (さくねんはにほんをりょこうしていました). Last year's sales were higher than this year's 「昨年の売り上げは今年より高かった」 (さくねんのうりあげはことしよりたかかった).

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

The kanji "昨" means "Yesterday" and "Previous" and can be read as "Saku". 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 "Sakunen" mean in japanese?

"Sakunen" means "Last year" .

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

To make really sure you learn this word, We'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 "さ" is read as "sa". The hiragana "く" is read as "ku". The hiragana "ね" is read as "ne". The hiragana "ん" is read as "n". The hiragana "と" is read as "to". And The hiragana "し" is read as "shi".

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.