Learn how to use the counter つ (Tsu)
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| Do you know how to count objects in bags? |
| 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? |
| つ |
| First, let's take a look at what sorts of objects can be counted with the counter. |
| Japanese has a general counter, which is... |
| つ |
| You can use this general counter when objects don't have specific counter, or when you don't know the specific counter for a certain item. |
| You can also use it to count relatively small objects regardless of their shape, such as oranges, and glasses. When you order something at restaurants and cafe, you can use this general counter to say how many of the same item you want. |
| So, for example, if you're at a cafe with your friend and you order two coffees, you can use this general counter for saying "2". |
| コーヒー、ふたつ。 |
| Okay, let's count from 1 to 10 with this counter. |
| ひとつ |
| ふたつ |
| みっつ |
| よっつ |
| いつつ |
| むっつ |
| ななつ |
| やっつ |
| ここのつ |
| とう |
| This counter only goes up to 10, and all the numbers might sound very different to the usual numbers. |
| You just need to memorize them, but Yamamori-sensei will help you a little bit. |
| The numbers 3, and 6 and 4 and 8 are slightly similar. |
| Numbers 3, 4, 6 and 8 are 'mittsu', 'yottsu', muttsu' and 'yattsu' respectively. |
| Number 9 is 'kokonotsu' and it sounds similar to "coconuts". |
| Number 10 is 'tō'; it sounds like "toe". |
| Okay. Now let's take a look at some sample sentences that use this counter. |
| りんごを七つ買いました。 |
| “I bought 7 apples." |
| 妹に飴を二つあげました。 |
| “I gave 2 candies to my younger sister.” |
| コーヒーを五つ、ください。 |
| “Can I have 5 cups of coffee, please?” |
| 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 tomatoes did you buy? |
| トマトを四つ買いました。 |
| How many bags are there? |
| バッグがひとつあります。 |
| Do you know how to count if objects are in bags? |
| 一袋 |
| You can often find 5 or 6 apples, oranges, or grapefruits in a bag at Japanese supermarkets. |
| So, you might say… グレープフルーツを二袋、買いました。 |
| And it means "I bought 2 bags of grapefruits". |
| Okay, everyone. That's it for this lesson. |
| I'll see you next time! |
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