41
There is certainly a reason for that. In this case, it is for expressing Yamane's (or the human kind's) derogatory feelings toward Godzilla.
The counter 「[頭]{とう}」 simply does not carry that derogatory connotation among us Japanese-speakers; It can only be neutral. In case this is what you are wondering about, the size of Gozilla does not matter as ...
25
As it turns out, there are Japanese numbers greater than 10!
Getting started, let's review the basics:
1 through 9:
[一つ]{ひとつ}、[二つ]{ふたつ}、[三つ]{みっつ}、[四つ]{よっつ}、[五つ]{いつつ}、[六つ]{むっつ}、[七つ]{ななつ}、[八つ]{やっつ}、[九つ]{ここのつ}
Going above 20, つ changes into そ. Here are the 10s through 90:
[十]{とお}、[二十]{はた}、[三十]{みそ}、[四十]{よそ}、[五十]{いそ}、[六十]{むそ}、[七十]{ななそ}、[八十]{やそ}、[九十]{...
22
つ is a generic inanimate counter. It might be confusing sometimes, but you can get away with using it for lots of inanimate objects if you don't know a more appropriate counter.
Don't use つ for animals or people.
You should use 匹 for kittens in your example, not つ. The basic counter for people is 人{にん}.
In general, animate objects (animals and people) ...
20
For counting a number of occurrences 回 and 度 are interchangeable with small numbers. Somewhere around 4 (the line is quite vague), 度 becomes uncommon, and by the time you get to 6, 回 is pretty much the only one used. (Naturally, 度 can be used with any number for counting degrees, as noted in Azeworai's informative answer.)
18
Its use is not limited to photos. もう一丁 is an idiomatic phrase which just means "one more try", "give it another shot".
丁 is also used as a counter for dishes (of food), and today もう一丁 is typically heard as a vigorous call in some restaurants (「牛丼、並一丁！」「ラーメン大盛り一丁！ もう一丁！」）. I think you can just memorize it as it is.
Photographers may say もう一丁 to their ...
18
As you said, 「N 歳」 is reserved for humans and other animals. For other objects, it is not used except for when one personifies them humorously (or for other literary effects).
For buildings, by far the most common phrase would be:
「築{ちく} N 年{ねん}」
We would normally say:
「あの城{しろ}は築５００年以上{ねんいじょう}です。」
It is not correct or natural to say:
「...
17
Your book is correct. When talking about human body temperature, 三十 is often omitted, probably because it is obvious. While there is nothing wrong with saying 37度8分 (37.8 degrees Celsius), it is often abbreviated to 7度8分. Even 37度 (37 degrees Celsius) without a fractional part sometimes becomes 7度.
You cannot abbreviate the temperature when it is 40 ...
17
In a restaurant it is usually enough to simply ask for お箸を下さい. It is perfectly understood that that means "enough chopsticks for me [and my companions], please". Anything more specific is usually unnatural.
If you do need to specify how many pairs of chopsticks exactly, you'd usually use 〜膳 -zen.
16
I believe that the usual counter is 話{わ}, literally meaning stories, so you'd say 10話 for ten episodes, and 第10話 or 10話目 for the tenth episode.
Occasionally I've seen shows that used different counters for their own title cards. For example, ふしぎの海のナディア numbered all its episodes using 回, so for instance the tenth episode was 第10回. And 神秘の世界エルハザード numbered ...
15
In your example, context wise is the same they're both correct because they're counting an occurrence- both words can be used for counting occurrences.
度 can be used for counting degrees in angles and temperature whereas 回 cannot.
回 is more often used for rounds and revolutions whereas 度 is not used.
To be explicit, my dictionary(midori) categorises ...
15
That is the 略字 for 枡, the square vessel used for sake and a measurement of volume.
EDIT: Punningly, also used as an abbreviation for the verb ending ーます during the Edo period:
また、「ます」と呼ぶことから丁寧の語尾（助動詞）の「ます」の置き換えとしても使用されることが多かった。（例：豆腐あり〼）この用例は江戸時代にはかなり多かったが現代になってからは使用頻度が少なくなった。
13
From experience, I find Japanese people having lots of trouble converting between Japanese and Gregorian calendar years. I regularly surprise people with my ability to do that as follows (Japanese calendar years are often represented with an alphabet character like S or H.):
Showa Era (1925 to 1989)
Subtract 1900 (e.g. 1976 - 1900 = 76)
Subtract 25 (e.g. ...
13
In old Chinese--where Japan borrowed the term--口 was a counter for people. More specifically, it referred to the number of people needing food. English has this construction too: the number of "mouths" (=people) to feed.
As for 個, it generally refers to individual non-animate items.
13
You can read the time of day in 24-hour format using the pronunciation for the numbers 13–24 as for the numbers 1–10 followed by 時【じ】, e.g.
15:40 = 15時40分 = じゅうごじ よんじゅっぷん
19:20 = 19時20分 = じゅうくじ にじゅっぷん
In particular, exceptions to the usual readings are the same
4時 = よじ → 14時 = じゅうよじ, 24時 = にじゅうよじ
7時 = しちじ → 17時 = じゅうしちじ
9時 = くじ → 19時 = じゅうくじ
...
13
You can also use ２か国語, ３か国語 etc. to talk about how many languages one speaks, as in...
「私は、３か国語が話せます。」
「彼は、フランス語とドイツ語と英語の３か国語が話せます。」
You can also use 言語, as in...
「僕は、フランス語とドイツ語と英語の３つの言語が話せます。」
You could also use terms like バイリンガル, トリリンガル, マルチリンガル, as in:
「私は、フランス語と英語のバイリンガルです。」
「彼女は、フランス語と英語とドイツ語が話せるトリリンガルです。」
12
Here is a good list of numbers in [大和言葉]{やまとことば}.
http://www.sf.airnet.ne.jp/~ts/language/number/ancient_japanesej.html
Beginning and intermediate Japanese-learners may think that we only use 1-10 from the list in Modern Japanese, but that is not true.
For instance, native speakers frequently use these to tell people's ages euphemistically.
はたち (20)...
12
Googling the two terms in Japanese, there are a great deal of discussions among the Japanese about when to use which as clearly ambiguous to them as much as it is to you. One of such quoted the definitions from Dictionary of How to Count (『数え方の辞典』) written by Asako Iida (飯田朝子).
【匹】
・大型ではない生物全般。
・小型の哺乳類。
・小型の爬虫類、両棲類。
・魚類。
【頭】
・大型の哺乳類。
...
11
This is pretty common in restaurants etc, both by staff and by customers.
I think it's just to make counting easier.
For example, ビール is counted with 杯{はい} when seved in a glass, but 本{ほん} when served in a bottle. If rice is served in a chawan, it would be 杯{はい}, but when served on a plate, it would be 皿{さら}.
So ～つ is just being used as a generic "X ...
11
In basically all daily conversations, the only natural way to express the numbers and items is:
Name of item + (particle) + number + counter + verb phrase
Natural: 「ビッグマック + を + ふたつ + [食]{た}べた。」 = "I ate two Big Macs."
Natural: 「みそラーメン +を + よっつ + [下]{くだ}さい。」 = "(Give us) four miso-ramens, please!"
Unnatural though grammatical: 「ふたつのビッグマックを食べた。」 & 「...
11
Yes, 人【にん】 is a counter "agrees" with person, but no, it cannot play the role of a noun. Counters only makes a number able to modify a noun, but grammar prohibits it from having noun meaning. Thus, if you want to tell "two hundred people" you always have to say 200人【にん】の人【ひと】. It however doesn't mean the noun is not omissible.
村には500人の人が住んでいたが、...
11
That would be one fish tank and two trophies, all of which are placed on top of something (その上). At least, that is how nearly every native speaker would read that sentence.
If it were the word 「ふたつ」 that was confusing you, it would not be used to count two totally unrelated items such as a fish tank and a trophy when there is one of each. It is not like ...
10
I believe the most common thing to do with sandwiches is use つ. （サンドイッチを３つもらえますか？） There probably is a correct counter for loaves of bread, but I don't know it, and again I think つ is more common.
10
I think that the sequence beginning 一番・二番・三番 corresponds roughly to number one, number two, number three. Each word in this sequence is formed from the combination of a numeral (一・二・三) with a counter meaning number (番).
You can take this list and add the ordinal suffix 目 to each word, producing the list 一番目・二番目・三番目, corresponding roughly to first, second, ...
10
The ordinal prefix 第 is read だい. This is sense two in 大辞泉:
［接頭］数を表す語に付いて、ものの順序を表すのに用いる。「世界―一の都会」「―五巻」「―三レース」「―六感」
The counter 話 is read わ, and it attaches to Sino-Japanese numerals such as いち.
Put it all together and you get だいいちわ.
10
For your purpose, the most often-used word would be 「話{わ}」 followed probably by 「回{かい}」, but not 「挿話{そうわ}」.
「挿話」 is more like an "anecdote" or a little "side-story".
Ordinally, we say 「第{だい}(number)話{わ}」 or 「第{だい}(number)回{かい}」 .
Cardinally, we say 「(number)話」,「(number)話分{わぶん}」,「(number)回分{かいぶん}」, etc.
"I watched 13 episodes so far." =
「第13話まで観{み}た。」(...
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