How Many Counters Are There
In Japanese, counter words or counters ( 助数詞 , josūshi ) are measure words used with numbers to count things, deportment, and events.
In Japanese, equally in Chinese and Korean, numerals cannot quantify nouns by themselves (except, in certain cases, for the numbers from one to ten; meet below).[1] For case, to express the idea "two dogs" in Japanese ane could say 二匹の犬 ni-hiki no inu (literally "two small-scale-fauna-count POSSESSIVE dog"), or 犬二匹 inu ni-hiki (literally "dog ii pocket-sized-animal-count"), merely merely pasting 二 and 犬 together in either order is ungrammatical. Here 二 ni is the number "ii", 匹 hiki is the counter for small animals, の no is the possessive particle (a reversed "of", similar to the " 'due south" in "John's dog"), and 犬 inu is the word "dog".
Counters are non independent words; they must appear with a numeric prefix. The number can exist imprecise: 何 nan or, less commonly, 幾 iku, can both be used to mean "some/several/many", and, in questions, "what/how many/how much". For example, "some guests" can be translated as 何名様 nan mei-sama (lit. "some people-count honored-ones"), and "how many guests?" as 何名様？ nan mei-sama? (lit. "what people-count honored-ones QUESTION"). Some nouns prefer 幾 iku, as in 幾晩？ iku-ban? "how many nights?" and 幾日も行っていた iku-nichi mo itte ita "I was gone for many days."
Counters are like in function to the word "pieces" in "2 pieces of newspaper" or "cups" in "two cups of coffee". However, they cannot have non-numerical modifiers. So while "two pieces of paper" translates fairly directly as 紙二枚 kami ni-mai (lit. "paper two apartment-count"), "two green pieces of paper" must be rendered as 緑の紙二枚 midori no kami ni-mai, akin to "ii pieces of green paper".
Just equally in English, different counters tin be used to convey dissimilar types of quantity. In English, i can say "one loaf of staff of life" or "ane slice of bread". In Japanese, the equivalents would exist パン一斤 pan ikkin (lit. "staff of life one-loaf") and パン一枚 pan ichimai (lit. "bread 1-flat-count").
Grammatically, counter words can appear either before or after the noun they count. They mostly occur after the noun (following particles), and if used before the noun, they emphasize the quantity; this is a mutual mistake for English learners of Japanese. For example, to say "[I] drank 2 bottles of beer", the social club is ビールを二本飲んだ bīru o nihon nonda (lit. "beer OBJECT two-long-sparse-count drank"). In contrast, 二本のビールを飲んだ nihon no bīru o nonda (lit. "two-long-thin-count POSSESSIVE beer OBJECT drank") would only exist appropriate when emphasizing the number as in responding with "[I] drank two bottles of beer" to "How many beers did you beverage?".
Phrase structure involving numerals and counters [edit]
Japanese Nominal Structure as proposed by Akira Watanabe
One proposed structure includes three layers of functional projections: #P, CaseP, and QuantifierP.[2] Here, #P is placed above NP to explicate Japanese's lack of plural morphology, and to make clear the # head is the stalk of such morphology.[2] This structure relies on Movement in club to satisfy agreement via EPP features.[2]
Substitution of counters [edit]
In Japanese, well-nigh all nouns must use a counter to limited number considering Japanese lacks singular/plural morphology.[3] [ii] In this sense, virtually all Japanese nouns are mass nouns. This grammatical feature can issue in situations where 1 is unable to express the number of a particular object in a syntactically correct mode considering one does not know, or cannot remember, the appropriate counting word. With quantities from ane to ten, this trouble tin can frequently be sidestepped by using the traditional numbers (see below), which tin can quantify many nouns without help. For example, "iv apples" is りんご四個 ringo yonko where 個 ko is the counter, but can too be expressed, using the traditional numeral four, as りんご四つ ringo yottsu. These traditional numerals cannot be used to count all nouns, nonetheless; some, including nouns for people and animals, require a proper counter (except for 1 and 2 people, which virtually always use variants of the traditional numerals; see exceptions).
Some of the more common counters may substitute for less common ones. For instance, 匹 hiki (meet below) is ofttimes used for all animals, regardless of size. Even so, many speakers will prefer to employ the traditionally right counter, 頭 tō, when speaking of larger animals such as horses. This yields a range of possible counters, with differing degrees of usage and acceptability – for case, when ordering kushikatsu (fried skewers), one may society them every bit 二串 futa-kushi (2 skewers), 二本 ni-hon (2 sticks), or 二つ futa-tsu (2 items), in decreasing guild of precision.
Counters may be intentionally misused for humorous, stupid, or insulting effects. For instance, one might say 男一匹 Otoko ippiki ("one human [like an animal]"), using 匹 hiki , the counter for animals.[ citation needed ]
Table of traditional numerals [edit]
| Numeral | Japanese | Pronunciation (romaji) | Writing (hiragana) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 一つ | hitotsu | ひとつ |
| 2 | 二つ | futatsu | ふたつ |
| 3 | 三つ | mittsu | みっつ |
| 4 | 四つ | yottsu | よっつ |
| 5 | 五つ | itsutsu | いつつ |
| 6 | 六つ | muttsu | むっつ |
| 7 | 七つ | nanatsu | ななつ |
| 8 | 八つ | yattsu | やっつ |
| 9 | 九つ | kokonotsu | ここのつ |
| 10 | 十 | tō | とお |
Common counters by category [edit]
This is a selective list of some of the more normally used counting words.
| Pronunciation | Japanese | Use |
|---|---|---|
| People and Things | ||
| ぶ bu | 部 | Copies of a mag or newspaper, or other packets of papers |
| だい dai | 台 | Cars, bicycles, machines, mechanical devices, household appliances |
| はい hai, ぱい pai, ばい bai | 杯 | Cups and glasses of potable, spoonsful; cuttlefish, octopuses, venereal, squid, abalone, boats (slang) |
| ひき hiki, ぴき piki, びき biki | 匹 | Small animals, insects, fish, reptiles, amphibians, oni (demons/ogres) |
| ほん hon, ぽん pon, ぼん bon | 本 | ofttimes used discussion Long, sparse objects: rivers, roads, train tracks, ties, pencils, bottles, guitars; also, metaphorically, telephone calls, train or omnibus routes, movies (see also: tsūwa), points or bounds in sports events. Although 本 also ways "book", the counter for books is satsu. |
| かい kai, がい gai | 階 | Number of floors, stories |
| こ ko | 個, 箇, 个, or ヶ | frequently used word Implies that the item is small and/or round.[four] 個 is also used for war machine units. |
| まい mai | 枚 | oftentimes used word Thin, flat objects: sheets of paper, photographs, plates, articles of wearable (see also: chaku) |
| めい mei | 名 | People (polite) (名 means "proper name") |
| めん men | 面 | Broad, flat objects: mirrors, boards for board games (chess, igo, shogi), stages of computer games, walls of a room, tennis courts |
| にん nin | 人 | People (simply see table of exceptions beneath) |
| り ri | り or 人 | People, used in the words 一人 (ひとり) and 二人 (ふたり) |
| さつ satsu | 冊 | Books |
| つ tsu | つ | oft used word Full general-purpose counter, used equally part of the indigenous Japanese numbers 一つ ("one thing"), 二つ ("two things"), 三つ ("iii things"), etc. |
| わ wa | 話 | Stories, episodes of TV series, etc. |
| Time, Calendar, etc. | ||
| びょう byō | 秒 | Seconds |
| ふん fun, ぷん pun | 分 | Minutes |
| がつ gatsu, too つき tsuki | 月 | Months of the year. Calendar month-long periods when read tsuki (see also: kagetsu) |
| はく haku, ぱく paku | 泊 | Nights of a stay |
| じ ji | 時 | Hours of the day |
| じかん jikan | 時間 | Hour-long periods |
| か ka | 日 | Day of the month |
| かげつ kagetsu | ヶ月, 箇月 | Month-long periods (see also: gatsu). 箇 is normally abbreviated using a small katakana ヶ in modern Japanese. Alternatively 個, hiragana か, small katakana ヵ and total-size katakana カ & ケ can also be seen, although only か is similarly frequent. |
| ねん nen | 年 | Years, schoolhouse years (grades); not years of age |
| にち nichi | 日 | Days of the month (but encounter tabular array of exceptions below) |
| さい sai | 歳 (or 才) | Years of age (才 is used informally every bit a ryakuji) |
| しゅう shū | 週 | Weeks |
| Extent, Frequency, etc. | ||
| ばい bai | 倍 | Multiples, -fold as in "twofold" |
| ばん ban | 番 | Position, plough, sports matches |
| ど exercise, also たび tabi | 度 | frequently used word Occurrences, number of times, degrees of temperature or angle (see also: kai). |
| じょう jō | 畳 | Tatami mats. The kanji 畳 is also read tatami and is the same one used for the mats. The room size of a washitsu in Japan is given as a number of mats, for example four½ jō |
| かい kai | 回 | frequently used word Occurrences, number of times (see besides: do) |
Extended list of counters [edit]
This list as well includes some counters and usages that are rarely used or not widely known; other words tin can also exist used equally counters more than sporadically.
| Pronunciation | Japanese | Use |
|---|---|---|
| ば ba | 場 | Scene of a play |
| ばい bai | 倍 | Multiples, -fold as in "twofold" |
| ばん ban | 晩 | Nights (see also: ya) |
| ばん ban | 番 | Position, platform for a railroad train line, turn, sports matches |
| び bi | 尾 | Modest fish and shrimps (used in the fish merchandise; most people say hiki instead) |
| ぶ bu | 部 | Copies of a magazine or newspaper, or other packets of papers |
| ぶん bun | 文 | Sentences |
| びょう byō | 秒 | Seconds |
| ちゃく chaku | 着 | Suits of clothing (see besides: mai) |
| ちょう chō | 挺 | Long, narrow things such as guns, sticks of ink, palanquins, rickshaws, violins |
| ちょう chō | 丁 | Sheets, pages, leaves, tools, scissors, saws, trousers, pistols, cakes of tofu, boondocks blocks, servings at a restaurant |
| ちょう chō | 町 | Boondocks blocks |
| だい dai | 代 | Generations, historical periods, reigns |
| だい dai | 台 | Cars, bicycles, machines, mechanical devices, household appliances |
| だん dan | 段 | levels, ranks, steps (of stairs). |
| だんらく danraku | 段落 | Paragraphs |
| ど do, also たび tabi | 度 | Occurrences, number of times, degrees of temperature or angle (see also: kai). |
| ふで fude | 筆 | Sequences of letters or drawings that you lot write or depict without removing your pen off the paper. Not to be confused with "hitsu" (筆) below. |
| ふく fuku, ぷく puku | 服 | Bowls of matcha (powdered light-green tea); packets or doses of powdered medicine; puffs (of, e.yard., a cigarette); rests or breaks |
| ふく fuku, ぷく puku | 幅 | Hanging scrolls (kakejiku) |
| ふん fun, ぷん pun | 分 | Minutes |
| ふり furi | 振 | Swords |
| がっきゅう gakkyū | 学級 | Classes (in pre-university educational activity) |
| がつ gatsu, also つき tsuki | 月 | Months of the twelvemonth. Calendar month-long periods when read tsuki (run across also: kagetsu) |
| ご go | 語 | Words |
| ごう gō | 合 | small container (east.g. rice cup, sake cup) |
| ごん gon, as well こと koto | 言 | Words |
| ぐ gu | 具 | Suits of armour, sets of furniture |
| ぎょう gyō | 行 | Lines of text |
| はく haku | 泊 | Nights of a stay |
| はい hai, ぱい pai, ばい bai | 杯 | Cups and glasses of beverage, spoonfuls, cuttlefish, octopuses, venereal, squid, abalone, boats (slang) |
| はい hai | 敗 | Losses (sports bouts) |
| はこ hako | 箱 | Boxes |
| はり hari | 張 | Umbrellas, parasols, tents |
| はしら hashira | 柱 | gods, memorial tablets |
| はつ hatsu, ぱつ patsu | 発 | Gunshots, bullets, aeriform fireworks; orgasms, sex activity acts |
| ひき hiki, ぴき piki | 匹 | Modest animals, insects, fish, reptiles, amphibians, oni (ogres) |
| ひん hin, ぴん pin | 品 | Parts of a repast, courses (meet as well: shina) |
| ひつ hitsu, ぴつ pitsu | 筆 | pieces of land and number of people |
| ほ ho, ぽ po | 歩 | Number of (human foot)steps |
| ほん hon, ぽん pon, ぼん bon | 本 | Long, sparse objects: rivers, roads, train tracks, ties, pencils, bottles, guitars; too, metaphorically, telephone calls (run across likewise: tsūwa), train or bus routes, movies, home runs, points or bounds[ clarification needed ] in sports events. Although 本 also means "volume", the counter for books is satsu. |
| ひょう hyō, ぴょう pyō | 票 | Votes |
| ひょうし hyōshi, びょうし byōshi | 拍子 | Musical beats |
| じ ji | 字 | Letters, kanji, kana |
| じ ji | 児 | Children. As in "father of two (children)", etc. |
| じ ji | 時 | Hours of the day |
| じかん jikan | 時間 | Hour-long periods |
| じょう jō | 畳 | Tatami mats. The kanji 畳 is too read tatami and is the same one used for the mats. The room size of a washitsu in Japan is given as a number of mats, for case 4½ yo jō han |
| じょう jō | 錠 | Pills/capsules |
| じょう jō | 条 | Articles of police force, thin objects, rays or streams of light, streaks of smoke or lightning |
| か ka | 日 | Day of the month |
| か ka | 架 | Frames |
| か ka | 課 | Lessons |
| かぶ kabu | 株 | Stocks; plant nursery copse |
| かげつ kagetsu | ヶ月, 箇月 | Month-long periods (see also: gatsu). 箇 is normally abbreviated using a small katakana ヶ in modern Japanese. Alternatively 個, hiragana か, small-scale katakana ヵ and total-size katakana カ & ケ can likewise be seen, although only か is similarly frequent. |
| かい kai | 回 | Occurrences, number of times (see likewise: exercise) |
| かい kai, がい gai | 階 | Number of floors, storeys |
| かこく kakoku | ヶ国, 箇国 | Countries |
| かこくご kakokugo | ヶ国語, 箇国語 | (National) languages |
| かく kaku | 画 | Strokes in kanji |
| かん kan | 貫 | Pieces of nigiri-zushi |
| かん kan | 艦 | Warships |
| けいとう keitou | 系統 | Charabanc routes |
| けん ken | 件 | Abstruse matters and cases |
| けん ken, げん gen | 軒 | Houses |
| き ki | 機 | Aircraft, machines |
| き ki | 基 | Graves, wreaths, CPUs, reactors, elevators, dams |
| きん kin | 斤 | Loaves of bread |
| きれ kire | 切れ | Slices (of staff of life, cake, sashimi etc.) |
| こ ko | 個, 箇, 个, or ヶ | General measure word, used when in that location is no specific counter. 個 is also used for armed services units. |
| こ ko | 戸 | Houses (戸 means "door") |
| こう kō | 校 | Schools |
| こう kō | 稿 | Drafts of a manuscript |
| こう kō | 行 | Banks |
| こま koma | 齣, コマ | Frames, panels. 齣 is near unused nowadays. |
| こん kon | 献 | shots (of drink) |
| く ku | 区 | Sections, city districts |
| く ku | 句 | Haiku, senryū |
| くち kuchi | 口 | (Bank) accounts, donations (口 means "opening" or "entrance") |
| くみ kumi | 組 | Groups, a pair of people (twins, a husband and a wife, dancers, etc.) |
| くらす kurasu | クラス | School classes |
| きゃく kyaku | 脚 | Desks, chairs, long-stemmed glasses |
| きゃく kyaku | 客 | Pairs of cup and saucer |
| きょく kyoku | 曲 | Pieces of music |
| きょく kyoku | 局 | Board game matches (chess, igo, shogi, mahjong); radio stations, idiot box stations |
| まい mai | 枚 | Thin, apartment objects, sheets of paper, photographs, plates, articles of habiliment (see too: chaku) |
| まき maki or かん kan | 巻 | Rolls, scrolls, kan for volumes of volume |
| まく maku | 幕 | Theatrical acts |
| めい mei | 名 | People (polite) (名 ways "proper name") |
| めん men | 面 | Mirrors, boards for board games (chess, igo, shogi), stages of computer games, walls of a room, lawn tennis courts |
| もん mon | 門 | Cannons |
| もん monday | 問 | Questions |
| ねん nen | 年 | Years, school years (grades); not years of age |
| にち nichi | 日 | Days of the month (but see table of exceptions below) |
| にん nin | 人 | People (but see table of exceptions below) |
| にんまえ ninmae | 人前 | Food portions (without exceptions, unlike nin to a higher place) |
| おり ori | 折 | Boxes made of folded paper (compare to hako to a higher place, which refers to boxes in general) |
| ぺーじ pēji | ページ, 頁 | Pages |
| れい rei | 例 | Cases, examples |
| れい rei | 礼 | Bows during worship at a shrine |
| れん ren | 連 | finger rings or necklace loops |
| り ri | り or 人 | People, used in the words 一人 (ひとり) and 二人 (ふたり). |
| りん rin | 輪 | Wheels, flowers |
| りょう ryō | 両 | Railway cars |
| さい sai | 才 or 歳 | Years of historic period |
| さお sao | 棹 | Chests of drawers, flags |
| さつ satsu | 冊 | Books |
| せき seki | 席 | Seats, rakugo shows, (drinking) parties |
| せき seki | 隻 | Ships, half of a pair (e.g., half of a folding screen), item carried in a bundle (fish, birds, arrows etc.) |
| しな shina | 品 | Parts of a repast, courses (see too: hin) |
| しゃ sha | 社 | used for businesses, i.e. 会社 |
| しき shiki | 式 | Sets of things, such equally documents or furniture |
| しょう shō | 勝 | Wins (sports bouts) |
| しゅ shu | 首 | Tanka |
| しゅう shū | 週 | Weeks |
| しゅるい shurui or しゅ shu | 種類 or 種 | Kinds, species |
| そく soku | 足 | Pairs of footwear, pairs of socks, stockings, tabi |
| そう sō | 双 | Pairs |
| たば taba | 束 | bundles (of banknotes), bunches (of flowers, vegetables), sheaves |
| たい tai | 体 | Images, statues, person'southward remains, dolls, androids, humanoid robots |
| たわら tawara | 俵 | Numberless of rice |
| てき teki | 滴 | Drops of liquid |
| てん ten | 点 | Points, dots, pieces of a set |
| とう tō | 頭 | Large animals, cattle, elephants, whales, dolphins, butterflies (頭 means "head") |
| とき toki | 時 | Time periods, a sixth of either day or night (in the traditional, obsolete way of telling fourth dimension). Meet also: jikan |
| とおり tōri | 通り | Combinations, puzzle solutions |
| つ tsu | つ | Used every bit part of the indigenous Japanese numbers 一つ, 二つ, 三つ etc. |
| つう tsū | 通 | Letters |
| つぼ tsubo | 坪 | Commonly used unit of area equal to 3.three square metres. |
| つぶ tsubu | 粒 | Almonds, grain |
| つうわ tsūwa | 通話 | Telephone calls (run into also: hon) |
| わ wa, ば ba, ぱ pa | 羽 | Birds, rabbits. 羽 ways "feather" or "wing." |
| わ wa | 把 | Bundles |
| わ wa | 話 | Stories, episodes of TV series, etc. |
| や ya | 夜 | Nights (see also: ban) |
| ぜん zen | 膳 | Pairs of chopsticks; bowls of rice |
Euphonic changes [edit]
Systematic changes occur when particular numbers precede counters that begin with sure phonemes. For instance, 一 ichi + 回 kai → 一回 ikkai. The details are listed in the table below.
This tin exist the result of the morpho-phonological phenomenon of historical sound changes,[5]' as shown by the voicing of 匹 hiki:
六 + 匹 → 六匹
roku + hiki → roppiki
half-dozen-small-scale.animal.count
alter from glottal [h] → bilabial [p].
It may also exist that some counters conduct features which are responsible for such euphonic changes for singular, dual, and plural nouns, where singular carries [+singular, -augmented] features, dual carries [-singular, -augmented] features, and plural carries [-singular, +augmented] features.[vi]
一人
hito-ri
one-person.count
二人
futa-ri
two-person.count
三人
san-nin
three-person.count
These changes are followed fairly consistently but exceptions and variations betwixt speakers do exist. Where variations are common, more than than i culling is listed.
Jū is replaced by either ju- or ji- (じゅっ/じっ) followed past a doubled consonant before the voiceless consonants as shown in the table. Ji- is the older form, but it has been replaced by ju- in the speech of contempo generations.
| Numeral | one thousand- (か きゃ etc.) | s/sh- (さ しゃ etc.) | t/ch- (た ちゃ etc.) | h- (は ひ へ ほ ひゃ ひゅ ひょ) | f- (ふ) | p- (ぱ etc.) | w- (わ) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 ichi | ikk- いっか | iss- いっさ | itt- いった | ipp- いっぱ | ipp- いっぷ | ipp- いっぱ | |
| 3 san | sanb- さんば | sanp- さんぷ | sanb- さんば | ||||
| 4 yon | yonh- よんは yonp- よんぱ | yonf- よんふ yonp- よんぷ | yow- よわ yonw- よんわ yonb- よんば | ||||
| 6 roku | rokk- ろっか | ropp- ろっぱ | ropp- ろっぷ | ropp- ろっぱ | rokuw- ろくわ ropp- ろっぱ | ||
| 8 hachi | hakk- はっか | hass- はっさ | hatt- はった | happ- はっぱ | happ- はっぷ | happ- はっぱ | happ- はっぱ hachiw- はちわ |
| ten jū | jikk- じっか jukk- じゅっか | jiss- じっさ juss- じゅっさ | jitt- じった jutt- じゅった | jipp- じっぱ jupp- じゅっぱ | jipp- じっぷ jupp- じゅっぷ | jipp- じっぱ jupp- じゅっぱ | jipp- じっぱ |
| 100 hyaku | hyakk- ひゃっか | hyapp- ひゃっぱ | hyapp- ひゃっぷ | hyapp- ひゃっぱ | |||
| 1000 sen | senb- せんば | senp- せんぷ | |||||
| 10000 man | manb- まんば | manp- まんぷ | |||||
| 何 nan | nanb- なんば | nanp- なんぷ |
Exceptions [edit]
The traditional numbers are used by and for young children to give their ages, instead of using the historic period counter 歳 (or 才) sai.
Some counters, notably 日 nichi and 人 nin, utilise the traditional numerals for some numbers as shown in the tabular array below. Other uses of traditional numbers are ordinarily restricted to certain phrases, such as 一月 hitotsuki and 二月 futatsuki (i and ii months respectively), 一言 hitokoto (a single give-and-take) and 一度 hitotabi (once).
Sometimes mutual numbers that have a derived significant are written using unlike kanji. For example, hitori (alone) is written 独り, and futatabi (once more, another fourth dimension) is ordinarily written 再び instead of 二度. The counter for months kagetsu (derived from kanji 箇月) is normally written ヶ月.
Nana and shichi are alternatives for 7, yon and shi are alternatives for four, and kyū and ku are alternatives for 9. In those three pairs of options, nana, yon and kyū respectively are more normally used. Some counters, however, notably 人 nin (people), 月 gatsu (month of the twelvemonth), 日 ka/nichi (twenty-four hours of the month, days), 時 ji (fourth dimension of twenty-four hour period) and 時間 jikan (hours) accept certain alternatives only. These are shown in the tabular array beneath.
While 回 kai (occurrences) and 銭 sen (0.01 yen, now rarely used) follow the euphonic changes listed to a higher place, homophones 階 kai (stories/floors of a building) and 千 sen (1000) are slightly different equally shown beneath, although these differences are non followed past all speakers. Thus 三階 ("3rd floor") tin can be read either sankai or sangai, while 三回 ("three times") tin only be read sangai.
| Numeral | つ tsu | 日 nichi | 人 nin | 年 nen | 月 gatsu | 時間 jikan | 時 ji | 分 fun | 百 hyaku | 千 sen | 歳 sai | 階 kai |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ane | ひとつ hitotsu | tsuitachi* | hitori | ippun | issen | issai | ikkai | |||||
| 2 | ふたつ futatsu | futsuka | futari | |||||||||
| 3 | みっつ mittsu | mikka | sanpun | sanbyaku | sanzen | sangai | ||||||
| 4 | よっつ yottsu | yokka | yonin*** | yonen | shigatsu | yojikan | yoji | yonpun | ||||
| five | いつつ itsutsu | itsuka | ||||||||||
| 6 | むっつ muttsu | muika | roppun | roppyaku | rokkai | |||||||
| vii | ななつ nanatsu | nanoka | shichinin | shichigatsu | shichijikan | shichiji | ||||||
| 8 | やっつ yattsu | yōka | happun | happyaku | hassen | hassai | hakkai | |||||
| 9 | ここのつ kokonotsu | kokonoka | kugatsu | kujikan | kuji | |||||||
| 10 | とお tō じゅっこ jukko | tōka | juppun | jussai | jukkai | |||||||
| 14 | jūyokka | jūyonin | jūyojikan | jūyoji | ||||||||
| 20 | hatsuka | hatachi | ||||||||||
| 24 | nijūyokka | nijūyonin | nijūyojikan | |||||||||
| 何 nan | ** | nanpun | nanbyaku | nanzen | nangai |
* But when counting number of days rather than days of the month, ichinichi is used. Ippi is too heard.
** Both 幾人 ikunin and 何人 nannin are used to mean "how many people".
*** In remote rural areas (eastward.m. Northern Honshu and Eastern Hokkaido) older speakers might use yottari.[seven]
Ordinal numbers [edit]
In general, the counter words mentioned above are cardinal numbers, in that they signal quantity. To transform a counter word into an ordinal number that denotes position in a sequence, 目 me is added to the end of the counter. Thus "1 time" would exist translated as 一回 ikkai, whereas "the first time" would be translated as 一回目 ikkaime. This rule is inconsistent, however, as counters without the me suffix are often used interchangeably with fundamental and ordinal meanings. For case, 三階 sangai can mean both "iii floors" and "third flooring."
Periods of time [edit]
To express a flow of time one may add 間 kan to the post-obit words: 秒 byō, 分 fun, 時 ji, 日 nichi (and its irregular readings aside from tsuitachi), 週 shū, ヶ月 kagetsu and 年 nen. Usage varies depending on the word, though. For example, omitting kan in the case of 時間 jikan would be a fault, whereas shūkan and shū are both in frequent use. In addition, kagetsukan is rarely heard due to essentially being superfluous, the ka already operation to express the length.
See also [edit]
- Japanese numerals
- Japanese units of measurement
- Measure words
- Chinese classifier
References [edit]
- ^ Gunji, Takao; Hasida, Kôiti, eds. (1999). Topics in Constraint-Based Grammer of Japanese. Studies in Linguistics and Philosophy. Vol. 68. Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands. doi:ten.1007/978-94-011-5272-3. ISBN978-0-7923-5611-0.
- ^ a b c d Watanabe, Akira (Feb 2006). "Functional Projections of Nominals in Japanese: Syntax of Classifiers*". Natural Linguistic communication & Linguistic Theory. 24 (1): 241–306. doi:10.1007/s11049-005-3042-4. ISSN 0167-806X. S2CID 33599661.
- ^ Keenan, Edward L.; Paperno, Denis, eds. (2012). Handbook of Quantifiers in Tongue. Studies in Linguistics and Philosophy. Vol. 90. Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands. doi:10.1007/978-94-007-2681-nine. ISBN978-94-007-2680-2.
- ^ "Counting Pocket-size Objects in Japanese with 個 | PuniPuniJapan".
- ^ Kobuchi-Philip, Mana (May 2007). "Floating numerals and floating quantifiers". Lingua. 117 (5): 814–831. doi:10.1016/j.lingua.2006.03.008. ISSN 0024-3841.
- ^ Watanabe, Akira (2017-11-10). "The mass/count stardom in Japanese from the perspective of partitivity". Glossa: A Journal of General Linguistics. 2 (i): 98. doi:ten.5334/gjgl.116. ISSN 2397-1835.
- ^ "Language Contact and Lexical Innovation" (PDF) . Retrieved 2007-02-14 . Table one. Native Counting in Japanese
External links [edit]
- About.com - Counters
- A listing of numeral counters with ichi/hito gear up indicated.
How Many Counters Are There,
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_counter_word
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