Questions tagged [counters]
助数詞. Suffixes attached to numbers to indicate what is being counted. In linguistics, these are sometimes called 'classifiers'. The combination of a number plus a classifier forms a type of 'quantifier', and the movement of quantifiers into other parts of the sentence is called 'quantifier float'.
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What does 男手一つで育てる literally mean?
紅緒を男手一つで育てた陸軍少佐。
It's from はいからさんが通る.
It means "Major who raised Benio with his own (male) help", right?
To me, if "help" could be countable in English, it would be "Major ...
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Are browser tabs タブ counted as つ or 個?
Safari counts tabs as 個 even for small numbers like 5. I wonder, is this the accurate counter word for browser tabs? Or are tabs counted with generic つ that becomes 個 for numbers greater than 10, but ...
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How can we figure out how counters are read with each number?
I see from this post that there are patterns for dakuten for counters. This page is also linked there as reference. However, I'd like to know if there is a way to look these things up.
The reason I'm ...
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How are fundoshi counted?
「昔【むかし】は裸【はだか】やったけ、なお寒【さむ】かった」と振【ふ】り返【かえ】る秀子【ひでこ】さんは[30歳]【さんじゅっさい】までふんどし[1枚]【いちまい】で潜【もぐ】っていた
"I used to dive naked and it was even colder," recalls Hideko, who dove in a loincloth until she ...
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Omission of subject/object with descriptive counters
Counters continue to cause me no end of confusion.
Consider
りんごを一個食べた。
I ate one apple.
In order to know what I'm talking about I need the object, りんご. This is because the counter 個 tells me very ...
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Is いっしゅるい the correct reading of 1種類?
「いろいろやると大変【たいへん】になるから」と、メニューはカレーライス[1種類]【いっしゅるい】のみ
He opened a small curry shop with only one type of curry rice on the menu, saying, "If I do too many things, it will be too much work."
Is ...
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reading of the counter 種
How does one read the counter 種 in this dictionary entry?
https://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/word/三毒/#jn-91663
仏語【ぶつご】。人【ひと】の善心【ぜんしん】を害【がい】する3種の煩悩【ぼんのう】。貪【とん】・瞋【しん】・痴【ち】。
There are three kinds of vexations ...
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How do you say "n out of m" with 目?
I'm writing an application which features pagination, and I would like to translate it into Japanese. I have the following English text:
Page 2 / 115
Before adding pagination, I would have ...
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Is１人 always ひとり? [duplicate]
This sentence appeared in Mainichi the other day:
[1人]【ひとり】のために[10人]【じゅうにん】の未来【みらい】をつぶしていいんですか
Is it okay to destroy the future of ten people for the sake of one person?
Is the reading of 1人 in this ...
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What is the correct counter for "frames"?
What is the correct counter word to use when talking about a number of "frames" in a time? Ex: a time in a video game.
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Why are there so many words that mean "first" (and other ordinal numbers)? What are the differences?
Here are the words that roughly mean "first" that I'm aware of, but feel free to add more:
最初
一番
一番目
一次
第一次
第一
第一位
一位
首位
What are the differences (if any) between all of them?
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Anything special with the number 20? [duplicate]
When counting, the number 20 is always quite different than other numbers. For example, you have 二十日 (はつか) and 二十歳 (はたち). Where does this difference come from? Is the number 20 special in Japan?
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Counting number of numbers
So I'm a Japanese learner just coming across how to count stuff like cars, or buildings, or bottles, or anything!
But I was just wondering, is there any counter to count numbers?
For example, you ...
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On age counter(s) 「歳 、才 / 年齢 、 年令」
disclaimer: this question regards only the age counter for humans. For age counters regarding innanimate things(such as how old are cars or trees) please refer to this thread: General expression for ...
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Is there a counter for a dog's barking? Or more generally, a counter for sounds?
Had the thought while chatting online about whether there is a counter for barks from a dog or possibly one for distinct sounds in general.
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What is the grammatical function of "が" in this context of counting people?
In an anime I've been watching, the protagonist goes to a village where one of his friends came from, where all the people in the village have the same hair color as his friend. (with "〇" ...
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新しい回 counter use
I heard the use of 新しい回 to say "the last episode released" : do I understand it right ? is it a common expression ?
I have some doubt because according to me the counter for episode is 話。
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Counters with and without の
I'm currently reading a short paragraph here that has the following sentences:
男{おとこ}はそう言{い}うと、もう一枚{いちまい}マントを出{だ}して、急{いそ}いで着{き}ました。北風{きたかぜ}は二{に}枚{まい}のマントを脱{ぬ}がせるために、もっと強{つよ}く風{かぜ}を吹{ふ}きました。
In ...
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Why use 一本 in the expression 一本取る
I was watching an episode of ファニエスト外語学院 on judo.
At 6:26, the judoka remarked how his opponent ボビー could win him just by his horrid face, saying 「顔で一本取られた」って感じです.
I am interested in understanding why ...
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How do you pronounce amounts of damage, as in a video game?
I'm playing Slay the Spire in Japanese, and often see like ４ダメージ and stuff like that, but I don't know how you'd actually say that aloud. There's lots of information about counting in Japanese on the ...
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What is the measure word for a flag (on a pole/stick)?
Let's say there is a building with six flags on the roof.
The flags are on small poles/sticks that can be carried by a person.
The rectangular flag itself makes me think of 枚 while the pole makes me ...
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Pronunciation of bird counters: 三羽 and 四羽
We have:
一羽 いちわ
二羽 にわ
but it seems the pronunciations of the counter for 3 and 4 are irregular. In each case, are both pronunciations acceptable, or we must use the former?
三羽 さんば、さんわ
四羽 よんば、よんわ
...
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choice of ひと ふた vs イチ ニ etc. with counters
Scanning a long list of counters, the Chinese derived イチ ニ numerals seem to be prevalent. Is there any pattern or logic to the exceptions, i.e. when the native ひと ふた numerals are used?
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「計」「全」 before ~times counter (~回)
Today I heard a sentence like 「松本さんは クライムゲームを計【けい】 4回担当しました。」. I searched Google and found that there's also 「全」 but I can't find their usage explanation. How to use 「計」 and 「全」 before counters?
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Does the tsu つ counter have a kanji associated with it?
I can't seem to find anything online or in any dictionary.
My conclusion is that there is no kanji but can anyone confirm this?
Is there an archaic version that has gone out of use?
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How would you say 16 and 18 with the counter mai? [closed]
My textbook [Japanese from zero 1, George Trombley] gives 6 and 8 as roku mai and hachi mai.
But then gives 16 and 18 as じゅうろっまい juu rommai and じゅうはっまい juu hammai.
Is this correct ?
I am only learning ...
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How to say "garlic", "garlic clove" and "garlic bulb" in Japanese?
I was thinking how I'd write a recipe in Japanese which uses 2 garlic cloves, so I've put those terms on google translate and got the following results:
garlic: ニンニク
garlic clove: にんにく
garlic bulb: ...
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Japanese counters
In Japanese, there are so many counters(助数詞). So I'm asking more counters other than 月(しがつ、しちがつ、くがつ) or 時(よじ、しちじ、くじ).
i) What counter makes 4 read よ or し?
ii) What counter makes 7 read しち?
iii) What ...
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Leaving away the 目 suffix for ordinal numbers
I've seen 「1ページ」 refer to "page 1" of e.g. a book. Wouldn't this technically mean "one page" and 「１ページ目」 be correct for "page 1"?
Is leaving away the 目 when referring to ...
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Minna no nihongo wago counting
おはよう,
In lesson 11 of minna no nihongo:
Counting is always done in wago. It seems when I look online, kango is used for nearly all the example counters in minna no nihongo.
Is minna no nihongo just ...
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Units for stock indexes
When reading Japanese financial news, I found that different units were used for different stock indexes. For example, ドル／セント was used for Dow Jones Industrial Average, while ポイント was used for NASDAQ ...
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Counters and their placements with nouns
I have been practicing writing recently where I use counters, but I keep getting corrected by native speakers on there usage.
For example I write
3個のりんごを食べたいです。
I want to eat 3 apples.
But I keep ...
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二百十日 is read as にひゃくとおか. What about 百十日 or 三百十日? [duplicate]
十日 is read as とおか and 二十日 is read as はつか.
二百十日 is read as にひゃくとおか (not にひゃくじゅうにち) and 二百二十日 is read as にひゃくはつか.
三十日 is read as さんじゅうにち or みそか, 四十日 is read as しじゅうにち or よそか, 五十日 (50 days/50th day) is ...
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What's the difference between the -banme and -ban counters?
I found these two sentences in RosettaStone
kochira no sanbanme no seki desu
kanojo wa hachiban no seki ni suwatte imasu
Why is the first one not "sanban" and the second one not "...
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List number of family members with counters
I learnt that to say:
I have two younger brothers and one younger sister?
in Japanese, I can use:
弟と妹が二人います。 (Otōto to imōto ga futari imasu).
The grammar structure is the following:
Noun + ...
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Why can “39” be pronounced as 「ミク」？ [duplicate]
I was recently listening to someone talk about a game called “初音ミク Project DIVA MEGA39’s”. The English localization is changed to “MEGAMIX”.
They actually noted that 3 and 9 can be pronounced as ミ ...
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Counter word for (western) chess pieces
If you were counting pieces in chess, say, one, two, three pawns, how would you do that in Japanese? Would you use ほん hon, ぽん pon, ぼん bon 本?
I am not sure whether this makes a difference: by counting ...
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How does one express uncertainty when describing numbers e.g. 170-odd cases
I found myself stuttering when I tried to tell my boss that I had finished sending a-hundred-some-odd emails yesterday.
I've ask a similar question on HiNative a long time ago, and here I quote the ...
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Meaning of 見る in 「１日から２日は見て」
In this JLPT N1 listening practice transcript, a manager at a company is talking to his employee:
じゃ、お客様には、私の方からお詫びの電話を入れておくから。番号はこのメモの通りでいいんだよね。君は今すぐ管理部に連絡して、同じ商品の在庫があるか聞いてみて。...
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What is independent form of numeral 10?
An old Dover grammar-book of Japanese shows it to be to (it has no kana but I assume it's と), but Wikipedia shows to̅ (とお). Which one is correct?
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The meaning of 四五町ほど(隔たる)
While reading Ryūnosuke Akutagawa's "In a Grove," I came across the sentence; 「山科の駅路からは、四五町ほど隔たって居りましょう。」山科 I understand to be a place and everything else is understandable for me other than 四五町. ...
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Syntactic Properties of "Bare Numerals": 「一」in「其の一」
I am currently attempting to research the syntax of nominal classifiers (i.e. "counter" words like 「〜台」and 「〜個」) and wanted to look for references to the irregular phenomenon of "bare" numerals: ...
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What is the counter for kanji characters?
I want to count the number of kanji characters in a word. What is the counter for characters? I am thinking that the term mai would be used as they are written on paper.
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How do I count pieces of Halloween candy of different shapes?
I know that a bag of candy is counted as fukuro. Are the pieces counted differently based on the shape, long, thick, square, round, triangular, or is everything ko?
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Are Japanese counters the same when viewing items online?
As an example, I read three books online, would the counter 冊 still be used? I know that counters are based on size and shape of physical items, do the same rules apply when reading a book online?
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Would the same counter be used to order a slice of pizza and a whole one?
When I order a pizza, would I use ichimai 一枚 to order a slice or the whole thing? Thank you.
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/h/ sound changing in some Japanese counters
I just noticed that the quantifying words that have an initial sound as /h/ such as 本、匹、分
For example: 本 hon
/h/ becomes /p/ : 1,6,8,10
/h/ becomes /b/ : 3,?? and ん sound before /b/ becomes /m/ (is ...
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What is the difference between 「女性一人」 and 「一人の女性」?
So far, I've learnt that a quantity (number + counter) can be attached to a noun to quantify it by using の:
一人の女性。One woman.
However, I came across a sentence in my textbook where the noun an the ...
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what does 人の mean?
I'm learning Japanese and using busuu. A native speaker corrected my exercise but I dont understand what the green corrections mean. They teach me vocab and not much grammar. Please help!
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第 [dai-] vs 目 [-me] in forming ordinal numbers
As I understand fo now 第 [dai-] and 目 [-me] both turn 5 to fifth.
五匹の犬 [go-hiki no inu] five dogs
五匹目の犬 [go-hiki-me no inu] the fifth dog
Here everything is clear.
Articles and books say you ...
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