ABOUT:
■ Japanese is full of counters. These helper words give information about the nature of the thing you are counting. Flat objects, people, small animals, etc have a counter.
Makoto+ Members, click here to practice using counters. Practice makes perfect!
Generic Counter: Japanese does allow for counting up to 10 using the kun readings of the numbers. This can be used for counting most things.
Number | Kanji | Pronunciation |
|---|---|---|
1 | 一つ | |
2 | 二つ | |
3 | 三つ | |
4 | 四つ | |
5 | 五つ | |
6 | 六つ | |
7 | 七つ | |
8 | 八つ | |
9 | 九つ | |
10 | 十 | |
How many? | いくつ |
For more on numbers, see here.
Take a quiz on those numbers, but be careful! The "wrong" answers are pretty tricky. Learn them well since they are so useful.
EXAMPLES:
二つありました。
There were two of them.
リンゴを一つお願いします。
Please give me one apple.
HOW TO USE:
As we mentioned earlier, using counters gives us information about the objects we are counting.
- 人 counter for people
- 歳 counter for ages of people and animals; this is also written as 才; this is fairly regular except for age 20 which is はたち.
- 個 counter for small or round objects [fruits; eggs]
- 本 counter for long, cylindrical objects [bottles; pencils; chopsticks]
- 枚 counter for flat, thin objects [sheets of paper; stamps; plates; shirts]
- 匹 counter for small animals [cats; dogs; fish—usually up to the size of a dog. For larger animals, 頭 is used.]
- 冊 counter for books
There are many, many more, but these are of the most useful.
Review the chart below and pay special attention to the underlined irregular pronunciations.
Header | 人 People | 歳・才 Age | 個 General Articles | 本 Long, Cylinder Objects |
|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | ひとり | いっさい | いっこ | いっぽん |
2 | ふたり | にさい | にこ | にほん |
3 | さんにん | さんさい | さんこ | さんぼん |
4 | よにん | よんさい | よんこ | よんほん |
5 | ごにん | ごさい | ごこ | ごほん |
6 | ろくにん | ろくさい | ろっこ | ろっぽん |
7 | しちにん ななにん | ななさい | ななこ | ななほん |
8 | はちにん | はっさい | はっこ はちこ | はちほん |
9 | きゅうにん くにん | きゅうさい | きゅうこ | きゅうほん |
10 | じゅうにん | じゅうっさい | じゅっこ | じゅうっぽん |
Header | 枚 Sheets of Paper | 匹 Small Animals | 冊 Books |
|---|---|---|---|
1 | いちまい | いっぴき | いっさつ |
2 | にまい | にひき | にさつ |
3 | さんまい | さんびき | さんさつ |
4 | よんまい | よんひき | よんさつ |
5 | ごまい | ごひき | ごさつ |
6 | ろくまい | ろっぴき | ろくさつ |
7 | ななまい | ななひき しちひき | ななさつ |
8 | はひまい | はっぴき | はっさつ |
9 | きゅうまい | きゅうひき | きゅうさつ |
10 | じゅうまい | じゅっぴき | じゅっさつ |
■ To ask, how many, simply add 何 before the counter: 何人 how many people?; 何枚 how many sheets (of paper)?
何人
何枚
Finally, take a short quiz to see if you can separate these core counters.
Want more practice? Makoto+ Members, click here to practice using counters. Practice makes perfect!
