No. 312 in Japanese
番
"番" (ばん) means "number," "turn," or "watch/guard," depending on context.
In a sentence
次の番が来たら教えてください。
Please let me know when my turn comes.
Here, '番' means 'turn' in a sequence, emphasizing the order in a queue or series.
お気に入りの番組はなんですか?
What is your favorite TV show?
In this sentence, '番' is part of '番組,' which means 'TV program' or 'show,' showcasing its incorporation in compound nouns.
この町の一番高い建物はどれですか?
Which is the tallest building in this town?
Here, '番' is part of '一番,' which translates to 'the most' or 'number one,' used as a superlative indicator.
Hear it in real podcasts
The recording above is a synthetic voice. Hear how people say “番” in actual Japanese podcasts.
Find “番” in podcastsLearn it from shows you like
LangTurbo plays Japanese podcasts with a transcript and the English under every line. Tap a word like this one and it tells you what it means right there. For iPhone, iPad and Android.
Learning English?
LangTurbo plays real English podcasts with every line translated into 日本語, and tells you what any word means in that sentence. For iPhone, iPad and Android.
Japanese books and courses on Amazon (an affiliate link: a purchase through it supports this site).