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Once again I find myself unable to count. What is the best way to express the following in Japanese

The three pigeons over there are noisy

あそこにいる鳩が3わ煩い (my attempt)

The four seasons are spring, summer, autumn and winter

4の季節は春と夏と秋と冬だ (my different kind of attempt (because I didn't know a counter word for seasons))

(I know there is a special word for all four seasons but that's not the point).

Also does it make a difference whether it is spoken or written. I was told in a previous question that numberのnoun was more of a written thing. Thanks.

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    How do we flag an edit? This one is horrendous!
    – l'électeur
    Jul 19 '15 at 11:15
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    @l'électeur rollback ならできますが。
    – Chocolate ♦
    Jul 19 '15 at 12:22
  • @l'électeur Click on "edited [time period] ago" to access the revision history, where you can roll back to any previous version. If you rather have a moderator handle it, click on "flag" > "in need of moderator intervention" and explain. (Edits by <1000 users enter the review queue, where they can be rejected. Edits by >1000 users go through automatically and will not be reviewed.)
    – Earthliŋ ♦
    Jul 19 '15 at 15:31
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I'd do:

The three pigeons over there are noisy

あそこにいる３羽の鳩がうるさい

The four seasons are spring, summer, autumn and winter

季節には、春、夏、秋、冬の４つがある

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I was told in a previous question that numberのnoun was more of a written thing

I don't think there is such an expression. You do say 一の重、一の段 etc. but this is not for counting.

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  • Thanks, I understand your pigeons example, but the four seasons example is confusing me. I didn't think you could put particles after counters e.g. ４つが.
    – user3856370
    Jul 19 '15 at 15:09
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    @user3856370 it's generally used when things are listed up (see google.co.uk/…). You can also say 四つの季節とは、春、夏、秋、冬である。四つの季節は春、夏、秋、冬だ is grammatically correct but sounds a bit non-native.
    – Enno Shioji
    Jul 19 '15 at 15:18
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    @user3856370 If you're talking about the idea "the four seasons", use 四季 as that's the exact word for it in Japanese. 4つの季節 would sound as if you're explaining to those live where they have seasons other than four.
    – broccoli facemask
    Jul 20 '15 at 4:09
  • 「あそこにいるハト３羽がうるさい」は、どうですか？
    – Chocolate ♦
    Jul 20 '15 at 9:08
  • @choco Why is it not あそこにいるハトが３羽うるさい rather than あそこにいるハト３羽がうるさい
    – user3856370
    Jul 20 '15 at 16:50

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