Learn how to use the counter 本 (Hon)
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| Do you know how to count pairs of chopsticks? |
| You'll find out at the end of this lesson! |
| Hi everybody! I'm Alisha. |
| こんにちは、 Yamamori です。 |
| Welcome to Japanese Counters for Beginners, where you'll learn how to count all sorts of different objects in Japanese! |
| Yamamori-sensei, what counter will we learn in this lesson? |
| Hon (本) |
| First, let's take a look at what sorts of objects can be counted with the counter. |
| When counting inanimate objects that are long and thin, you can use this counter… |
| Hon (本) |
| What are the examples of "long and thin" objects? |
| Objects can be made of soft material, like cords and strings, or hard material, like pens and pencils. You can also count bigger objects such as trees and telephone poles. |
| Okay, let's count from 1 to 10 with this counter. |
| 一本 |
| 二本 |
| 三本 |
| 四本 |
| 五本 |
| 六本 |
| 七本 |
| 八本 |
| 九本 |
| 十本 |
| Did you notice that there were some numbers that sounded different to how they usually sound? |
| When you read the numbers 1, 3, 6 and 10, you should be careful. |
| For number 1, it's i-ppon, not 'ichi-hon.' |
| For number 6, it's 'ro-ppon' not 'roku-hon.' |
| For number 10, it's 'ju-ppon' not 'juu-hon.' |
| For number 3, it's 'san-bon' not 'san-hon'. |
| Only this number 3 takes 'bon'." |
| Okay. Now let's take a look at some sample sentences that use this counter. |
| ワインを３本買います。 |
| “I'll buy 3 bottles of wine.” |
| ペンを５本ください。 |
| “Can I have 5 pens, please?" |
| 木が８本あります。 |
| “There are 8 trees.” |
| Now it's time for a quiz. I'm going to ask you a question in English. Please answer in Japanese. Are you ready? Be sure to use the right counter. |
| How many umbrellas are there? |
| 傘が２本あります。 |
| How many bottles of water did you buy? |
| 水を１０本買いました。 |
| Do you know how to count a pair of chopsticks? |
| The answer is... |
| 一膳 |
| You need to use this counter to specify how many pairs of chopsticks. |
| If you say... |
| 箸を二膳、ください。 |
| It means, "can I have two pairs of chopsticks, please?" |
| With this proper counter, you can get 2 pairs of chopsticks, instead of 2 individual sticks! |
| Okay, everyone. That's it for this lesson. |
| I'll see you next time! |
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