15
votes
Accepted
How to read 24-hour clock format
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 ...
15
votes
Accepted
名 vs 人 for counting people?
Short Answer: If you're a customer trying to make a reservation, you can use whichever you want.
Long Answer: 名 and 人 are different in formality. But 名 and 人 are not keigo; they are not honorific/...
14
votes
Accepted
Meaning of 見る in 「1日から2日は見て」
取り寄せるのに1日から2日は見ておいたほうがいいからね。
You know, (expect) it takes at least one day or two before the product arrives (to our office/department).
This 見る is "to expect", "to estimate", etc. See the tenth ...
13
votes
回{まわ}り as a counter for 12 years?
It is a measurement of time based on the zodiac cycle. There are 12 zodiacs and each year the zodiac changes to the next. Every 12 years the zodiac repeats; two people have the same zodiac sign if ...
12
votes
Accepted
What is the counter for languages
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。...
12
votes
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Would the same counter be used to order a slice of pizza and a whole one?
As for pizza, 枚 always stands for a whole round pizza. Each cut slice is counted with 切【き】れ (一【ひと】切れ, 二【ふた】切れ...).
(top: ピザ 一枚, bottom: ピザ 一切れ)
11
votes
Accepted
Are Japanese counters the same when viewing items online?
counters are based on size and shape of physical items
I'm not sure what you mean by this, but not really --- I'd say we choose counters based upon what we perceive the object to be.
So, for ebooks (...
10
votes
Doesn't ~ニン(人)as a suffix imply that it is a counter of people
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 ...
10
votes
Accepted
How to pronounce 1ターン?
Both いちたーん and いったーん are valid. (As an aside, わんたーん is also very common, especially when it's part of a longer phrase like 1ターンキル.)
There may be exceptions I'm not aware of, but basically foreign ...
10
votes
Accepted
What is the counter for kanji characters?
The counter for kanji characters is 字 or 文字. For example:
200字 - 200 characters
150文字 - 150 characters
四字熟語 - an idiomatic phrase with 4 characters
9
votes
Accepted
Counter followed by 隣
It's RxD.
1個隣, ひとつ隣 RD
2個隣, ふたつ隣 RxD
3個隣, みっつ隣 RxxD
Numbers larger than three is possible, but the larger the number is, the less likely 隣 would be used. People use 5個離れて, ななつ先 and such instead.
...
9
votes
Accepted
How do you express time duration when mixing time units?
"1年3ヶ月22日19時間25分14秒" works fine in scientific/technological contexts. In real conversations or mails, people usually add some と, typically after 1年, 22日 and/or 25分. と is sometimes mandatory because ...
9
votes
Accepted
Leaving away the 目 suffix for ordinal numbers
Nページ can mean "N page(s)" referring to the number of pages (eg 300ページの本 = a 300-page book). However, Nページ can also mean "page N", the page marked with that number. On the other ...
9
votes
How to say "garlic", "garlic clove" and "garlic bulb" in Japanese?
If you mean you use those words in cooking, we rather say like:
にんにく一玉【ひとたま】 or 一房【ひとふさ】: "a ball/bunch of garlic" = "a garlic bulb"
にんにく一片【ひとかけ】: "a chip of garlic" = &...
8
votes
Accepted
More complicated examples of allotting items with ずつ
It is not so difficult, if you know how to express "each" in Japanese.
The common way to express "each" is using 「それぞれ(の)」 「[各]{かく}」, or 「ごとに」.
By using these words and ordering ...
8
votes
Accepted
Confusing use of ずつ
昼と夜に2回ずつ is ambiguous, but usually means "twice in the afternoon and twice in the evening", i.e., four times a day.
昼と夜の2回ずつ is not ambiguous and it only means "twice a day, one in the afternoon and ...
8
votes
第 [dai-] vs 目 [-me] in forming ordinal numbers
As far as I know, 目 is used to talk about the position of something that is not structured or categorized beforehand and whose elements are equal if you disregard their position. On the other hand, 第 ...
7
votes
Accepted
What is the term used for a baby's age at birth?
In the past, Japanese ages used to be counted similarly to Korean ages, as ajsmart's comment talks about, but Japanese ages have been "westernized" for a long time now.
My Japanese friends who have ...
7
votes
Accepted
Why are phone calls cylindrical?
To be fair, 本 = 「細長いもの」is a really popular explanation (note that is does not imply anything about being round, I think that it is an usual extrapolation due to the fact that physical objects that are ...
6
votes
Accepted
How would you say "please give me 10 of this"?
You can stay with the form:
これを〇〇ください
But beyond 9, you'd need to switch from the traditional hitotsu-futatsu numerals to ichi-ni-style and add an appropriate counter for the item.
For a generic ...
6
votes
Accepted
一部屋一部屋 Meaning and reading
一部屋一部屋 is read as ひとへやひとへや, and means "each one of the rooms". Here 部屋 is used as the counter for rooms (一部屋【ひとへや】, 二部屋【ふたへや】, 三部屋【さんへや】/三部屋【みへや】, ...).
Generally, yes, this is a pattern that means "...
6
votes
How do you count train stations?
you can say things like:
2個{こ}先{さき}
2つ先
となりのとなり
あと二駅{ふたえき}
つぎのつぎ
6
votes
Are Japanese counters an adoption from the Chinese language?
Japanese already had counters before Chinese contact, but only a few. After Chinese they increased a lot.
Old Japanese (Nara period, before the Sinification of the language) had a handful of true ...
6
votes
Accepted
What is the correct counter to translate 'One Piece'?
I am more like curious what it would be called in japanese if it wasn't called via an English word
Okay... ワンピース has been referred to as ひとつなぎの大秘宝【だいひほう】 (literally "unseparated great hidden treasure"...
6
votes
Accepted
Is there rendaku with consecutive counters?
いっそくぶん is correct.
分 for this meaning is always pronounced as "ぶん" like "じゅうねんぶん"(10年分), "ふつかぶん"(2日分).
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