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Today I found this sentence on my Japanese textbook (みんなの日本語中級I - 本冊 pg. 70) And it didn't make any sense to me.

前から２両目の電車を降りたところで待っています。

I looked for 両目 on 電子辞書 and it says it means both eyes. Still didn't make any sense to me so I put it in Google Translator and the result was... well the expected one:

We are waiting in the place where I got off the train two eyes from the front.

Does this have any special meaning (I mean the use of 両目) or is it just that there is a mistake on the textbook and it should just be:

前から２目の電車を降りたところで待っています。

Which means the 2nd train.

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  • Doesn't the textbook explain this 目 at all? That is hard to believe.
    – user4032
    Feb 23, 2014 at 23:01
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    The textbook explains what is the meaning of 目 but what it doesn't says is that 両 is the counter for train cars (as @snailplane stated). That was what confused me.
    – Sergio
    Feb 24, 2014 at 20:00

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Here you have the ordinal ２, plus the counter 両{りょう}, which is used to count the cars on a train. The combination ２両 would mean "two [train] cars".

When you add the ordinal suffix 目{め} to ２両, it changes from "two cars" to "the second car". So, the whole phrase 前から２両目 really means the second car from the front (of the train).

Your sentence does not contain the word 両目{りょうめ} meaning "both eyes".

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