Learn about Japanese counters
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Intro |
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| Michael: What are Japanese counters? |
| Risa: And how are they used? |
| Michael: At JapanesePod101.com, we hear these questions often. Imagine the following situation: Mark Lee needs to buy some stationery. He goes to a store and says, |
| "Four pencils and four sheets of paper, please." |
| Mark Lee: えんぴつを四本と紙を四枚お願いします。 (Enpitsu o yon-hon to kami o yon-mai onegai shimasu.) |
| Dialogue |
| Mark Lee: えんぴつを四本と紙を四枚お願いします。 (Enpitsu o yon-hon to kami o yon-mai onegai shimasu.) |
| Koichi Kato: はい、どうぞ。 (Hai, dōzo.) |
| Michael: Once more with the English translation. |
| Mark Lee: えんぴつを四本と紙を四枚お願いします。(Enpitsu o yon-hon to kami o yon-mai onegai shimasu.) |
| Michael: "Four pencils and four sheets of paper, please." |
| Koichi Kato: はい、どうぞ。 (Hai, dōzo.) |
| Michael: "Here you go." |
Lesson focus |
| Michael: In this lesson, we will be covering a very important topic: Japanese counters. Counters, which are also known as classifiers, are special words that are used with numbers for counting. You might have noticed that Mark Lee uses different words to count pencils and sheets of paper. To say "four pencils" he says |
| Risa: 四本 (yon-hon) |
| Michael: and to ask for "four sheets of paper" he says |
| Risa: 四枚 (yon-mai) |
| Michael: As you can see, Mike Lee uses the exact same numeral |
| Risa: 四 (yon), |
| Michael: meaning "four," but he uses different counting words, or counters. To count sheets of paper, he uses |
| Risa: 〜枚 (~mai), |
| Michael: which is the counter used for flat things, and to count pencils, he uses |
| Risa: 〜本 (~hon), |
| Micheal: which is the counter used for long and thin things. In Japanese, it is usually not sufficient to only use numerals when counting; instead, numerals are usually followed by a suitable counter for the objects being counted. Thus, what is considered an appropriate counter depends on the object in question. For example, as we've seen in the dialogue, flat things like sheets of paper should be counted using |
| Risa: 〜枚 (~mai). |
| Micheal: This concept should be somewhat familiar from English. While it may not be as obvious, counters are sometimes used in English as well. Notice that you can't say "four papers"; you need to add the word "sheets" in order to count the otherwise uncountable "paper." However, it's a bit more interesting in Japanese because counters in Japanese are used for almost everything. As we already mentioned, the choice of counter will depend on the size, shape, and other traits of the object which you want to count. We already know that the counter for flat things, like sheets of paper, is |
| Risa: 〜枚 (~mai). |
| Michael: Here are some other examples of things which can be counted using ~mai: |
| Risa: シャツ (shatsu), |
| Micheal: "shirts." Imagine a pile of folded shirts, each one of them being flat. |
| Risa: ティッシュ (tisshu), |
| Michael: "tissues." |
| Risa: お皿 (o-sara), |
| Michael: "plates." |
| Risa: 百円玉 (hyaku-en dama), |
| Micheal: a "100-yen coin." All these objects are flat, so we use the counter |
| Risa: 〜枚 (~mai). |
| Micheal: Now, do you remember which counter Mark Lee used to count pencils? |
| Risa: 〜本 (~hon) |
| Micheal: This is a counter used to count long and relatively thin objects, such as |
| Risa: ペン (pen) |
| Micheal: "pens," |
| Risa: バナナ (banana) |
| Michael: "bananas," |
| Risa: にんじん (ninjin) |
| Micheal: "carrots," |
| Risa: ネクタイ (nekutai) |
| Micheal: "neckties," |
| Risa: 花 (hana) |
| Micheal: "flowers," |
| Risa: ボトル (botoru) |
| Micheal: "bottles," and |
| Risa: 傘 (kasa) |
| Michael: "umbrellas." While this last one may not be apparent, just think of a folded umbrella which is long and thin. In addition to these previous examples, there are also other less obvious things which you can count using ~hon, such as |
| Risa: 映画 (eiga) |
| Micheal: "movies," and |
| Risa: 電車 (densha) or バス (basu), |
| Michael: "trains" or "buses," as in how many trains or buses there are on the schedule, not the actual number of vehicles. For example, you can say |
| Risa: このバス停はバスが一日ニ本だけです。(Kono basutei wa basu ga ichi-nichi ni-hon dake desu.) |
| Micheal: "There are only 2 buses a day at this bus stop." Lastly, you can also use ~hon to count things like |
| Risa: 電話 (denwa) |
| Micheal: "phones," as in "phone calls," or |
| Risa: 舞台 (butai) |
| Micheal: "plays." In other words, things that have a beginning and an end. You can think of them as timelines. Although there are other times when you can use the counter ~hon, for this lesson we will stop here. We've now looked at two different counters but there are many many more. We will now look at a few more and leave the rest for later, as it's not practical to learn every counter at one time. Let's continue with the counter |
| Risa: 〜人 (~nin). |
| Micheal: This counter is used to count people. As with other counters, it simply follows the numeral, so "three people" would be |
| Risa: 三人 (san-nin). |
| Micheal: However, one must be careful with this counter, as it has a special reading with the numerals one and two. "One person" is |
| Risa: 一人 (hitori) |
| Micheal: and "two people" is |
| Risa: 二人 (futari), |
| Micheal: so make sure to remember those exceptions. Furthermore, if you go to a Japanese restaurant, you may also hear a different counter used for people: |
| Risa: 〜名 (~mei). |
| Micheal: You may hear, for example, a waiter ask, |
| Risa: 何名様ですか。(Nan-mei-sama desu ka) |
| Michael: meaning "How many people are there in your party?" Both |
| Risa: 〜人 (~nin) and 〜名 (~mei) |
| Micheal: are used to count people, but ~mei is more polite. In the case of a waiter in a restaurant, the question "how many people are there in your party" would be asked politely, using the question word |
| Risa: 何 (nani), which is pronounced here as なん (nan), |
| Micheal: followed by the polite counter |
| Risa: 〜名 (~mei), |
| Michael: and then by the polite suffix |
| Risa: 〜様 (~sama). |
| Micheal: Thus, all together, we have |
| Risa: 何名様 (nan-mei-sama), |
| Michael: meaning "how many people." You can respond to this question using either of the counters, ~mei or ~nin, or by simply showing the number of people with your fingers. Let's move on. Our next counter is |
| Risa: 〜杯 (~hai). |
| Micheal: It's used to count liquids in cups, glasses, or bowls. It can be used to count cups of juice, milk, water, or tea, and also to count bowls of soup, and even bowls of rice. As an example, consider the sentence |
| Risa: コーヒーを五杯飲みました。(Kōhī o go-hai nomimashita.) |
| Micheal: "I drank 5 cups of coffee." With this new counter, we can now differentiate between drinking two bottles of water, |
| Risa: 二本 (ni-hon), |
| Micheal: and two cups of water, |
| Risa: 二杯 (ni-hai). |
| Micheal: Thus, the same drink should be counted differently depending on how it's being served. Let's continue with counters used for animals: First, we have |
| Risa: 〜匹 (~hiki). |
| Micheal: This counter is used to count small animals, like cats, dogs, insects, snails, and frogs. Next, we have |
| Risa: 〜頭 (~tō). |
| Micheal: This counter is used to count large animals, like cows, gorillas, whales, giraffes, camels, and elephants. If you're having trouble with deciding whether to use ~hiki or ~tō, chances are that ~tō is the right answer. Lastly, there is one more special animal counter for birds, flying insects, and, oddly enough, rabbits: |
| Risa: 〜羽 (~wa). |
| Michael: This counter is written with the kanji meaning "wings." Moving forward, now that we can count animals, let's look at how to count machines, vehicles, large instruments, and furniture. The counter for this is |
| Risa: 〜台 (~dai). |
| Michael: Thus, to say "one fridge," one would say |
| Risa: 冷蔵庫一台 (reizōko ichi-dai), |
| Michael: to say "two tables," one would say |
| Risa: テーブル二台 (tēburu ni-dai). |
| Michael: and to say "three computers," one would say |
| Risa: パソコン三台 (pasokon san-dai). |
| Micheal: We've now looked at many useful counters, but there are also some counters which may seem weird or unexpected, such as |
| Risa: 〜膳 (~zen), |
| Michael: a counter used for chopsticks, which some people, although not entirely correctly, also count using -hon, the counter we learned earlier for long, thin objects. Other interesting counters include |
| Risa: 〜隻 (~seki), |
| Michael: a counter for ships, |
| Risa: 〜通 (~tsū), |
| Micheal: a counter for letters and emails, and |
| Risa: 〜丁 (~chō), |
| Micheal: a counter for tofu. As you can see, counters can get very specific, but don't worry about memorising them all at once. Before we conclude, let's learn one last general counter: |
| Risa: 〜つ (~tsu). |
| Micheal: It's technically not a counter, but rather a native Japanese way of counting from one to ten. However, since all but the number ten end in ~tsu, it's often referred to as the ~tsu counter. Here they are in order, from one to ten: |
| [please go over the numbers slowly, with a break after each one] |
| Risa: 一つ (hitotsu), 二つ (futatsu), 三つ (mittsu), 四つ (yottsu), 五つ (itsutsu), 六つ (muttsu), 七つ (nanatsu), 八つ (yattsu), 九つ (kokonotsu), and 十 (tō). |
| Michael: You can use these numerals to count almost any inanimate object, but, in some cases, it will be more natural to use the proper counter, if available. Lastly, there is one topic that we've been avoiding until now. When you attach a numeral to a counter, sometimes the pronunciation of that counter may change. For example, "three long things" would be |
| Risa: 三本 (san-bon), |
| Michael: not |
| Risa: san-hon. |
| Micheal: This often happens for the numbers one, three, six, eight, and ten. To get full counter tables including all of the changes in pronunciation, or to learn more about counters in general, go to Japanesepod101 and check out our course on counters. Let's conclude this lesson by looking at where counters are placed in a sentence, followed by a quick review of the counters that we've learned. In terms of counter placement in a sentence, we usually have two options: The first option is to put the counter after the object and its particle, as in |
| Risa: 犬が二匹います。(Inu ga ni-hiki imasu.) |
| Michael: Meaning "I have 2 dogs." Notice how we have the word for "dogs," |
| Risa: 犬 (inu), |
| Michael: followed by the particle, |
| Risa: が (ga), |
| Michael: and then followed by the number with the counter, |
| Risa: ニ匹 (ni-hiki). |
| Michael: The second option is to put the counter before the object that we're counting. In that case, the counter is usually followed by the particle |
| Risa: の (no), |
| Michael: like in the sentence |
| Risa: ニ匹の犬がいます。(Ni-hiki no inu ga imasu.) |
| Michael: "I have 2 dogs." |
| Review and Practice |
| Michael: Let's now review some basic facts about counters, as well as the main counters we've learned at the start of the lesson. When we count things in Japanese, we should remember to use a suitable counter. There are different counters for different objects, and the appropriate counter to use depends on various attributes of the object being counted, such as the object's shape and length. Try to recall some of the counters we've learned by responding to the following prompts aloud. Are you ready? What counter is used when counting flat objects, such as sheets of paper? |
| [3 seconds] |
| Risa: 〜枚 (~mai) |
| [3 seconds] |
| Risa: 〜枚 (~mai). For example, ichi-mai, ni-mai, san-mai, yon-mai, and go-mai. |
| Michael: What counter is used to count long things, such as pens or umbrellas? |
| [3 seconds] |
| Risa: 〜本 (~hon) |
| [3 seconds] |
| Risa: 〜本 (~hon). For example, ippon, ni-hon, san-bon, yon-hon, and go-hon. |
| Micheal: What counter is used for liquids in containers, such as cups, bowls, or mugs? |
| [3 seconds] |
| Risa: 〜杯 (~hai) |
| [3 seconds] |
| Risa: 〜杯 (~hai). For example, ippai, ni-hai, san-bai, yon-hai, and go-hai. |
| Michael: What counter is used to count small animals, such as cats or dogs? |
| [3 seconds] |
| Risa: 〜匹 (~hiki) |
| [3 seconds] |
| Risa: 〜匹 (~hiki). For example, ippiki, ni-hiki, san-biki, yon-hiki, and go-hiki. |
| Micheal: What counter is used for big animals, such as horses or lions? |
| [3 seconds] |
| Risa: 〜頭 (~tō) |
| [3 seconds] |
| Risa: 〜頭 (~tō). For example, ittō, ni-tō, san-tō, yon-tō, and go-tō. |
| Michael: What counter is used if you're counting machines, vehicles, or furniture? |
| [3 seconds] |
| Risa: 〜台 (~dai) |
| [3 seconds] |
| Risa: 〜台 (~dai). For example, ichi-dai, ni-dai, san-dai, yon-dai, and go-dai. |
| Michael: What counter is used to count people in a casual way? |
| [3 seconds] |
| Risa: 〜人 (~nin) |
| [3 seconds] |
| Risa: 〜人 (~nin). For example, hitori, futari, san-nin, yonin, and go-nin. |
| Michael: And what is the more formal counter for counting people? |
| [3 seconds] |
| Risa: 〜名 (~mei) |
| [3 seconds] |
| Risa: 〜名 (~mei). For example, ichi-mei, ni-mei, san-mei, yon-mei, and go-mei. |
| Micheal: Lastly, we talked about a universal counter, or rather a native Japanese counting system. Do you remember what that was? |
| [3 seconds] |
| Risa: 〜つ (~tsu) |
| [3 seconds] |
| Risa: 〜つ (~tsu). For example, hitotsu, futatsu, mittsu, yottsu, and itsutsu. |
| Michael: What we've covered in this lesson may seem like a lot, and it's probably overwhelming at first, but once you start using counters for counting things, you'll see that it's actually not that bad! Just try learning each counter one at a time and soon enough you'll have mastered them all. You may even find that it gets easier with each counter that you learn. |
Outro |
| Michael: Do you have any more questions? We're here to answer them! |
| Risa: またね！ (Mata-ne!) |
| Michael: See you soon! |
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