VocabularyJLPT N5 · core

一年

いちねん

hepburn ichinen

one year

Part of speech · noun

Pattern visualization

一one

年year

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Numbers1 strokes · 0.6s

Numbers6 strokes · 4.1s

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Examples

一年は十二ヶ月です。
A year is 12 months.
日本に一年住んでいます。
I have lived in Japan for one year.

Collocations

一年 (ichinen, one year)一年生 (ichinensei, first-year student)一年中 (ichinen-juu, all year)半年 (hantoshi, half year)十年 (juunen, ten years)

Mnemonic

Ichinen (一年) means "one year" — 一 (one) + 年 (year). The reading 年 follows the pattern in fixed compounds: ichinen, juunen, hyakunen (100 years), sennen (1000 years); but standalone deictic forms break it (kotoshi, kyonen). 年 spreads across senses: (1) duration (ichinen, juunen); (2) school grade (ichinensei, first-year student); (3) age (nenrei); (4) era (nendai). Japanese school system: ichinensei to roku-nensei in elementary (6 years), then 3 / 3 / 4 for middle, high, and university. Japan's "shin-gakki" (new school term) starts in April — distinct from Korea / China (March) or the US (September). The "sakura plus shin-gakki" cultural code anchors April 1: nyuugaku-shiki (school entrance ceremony), nyuusha-shiki (corporate entry ceremony), shin-nendo (new fiscal year). 年度 (nendo) — fiscal / academic year from April through March — synchronizes government, companies, and schools. JLPT N5 anchors ichinen / ichinensei, with cultural context layered on top.

Quick check

Start month of Japan's shin-gakki / shin-nendo?