Learn about the Japanese counters
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| Other counters こ。 (ko.) ほん。 (hon.) And まい。 (And mai.) . In the previous lesson, you learned the most general counter つ (tsu) such as ひとつ、ふたつ、みっつ。 (hitotsu, futatsu, mittsu.) . In this lesson, you are going to learn more counter suffixes like こ (ko) ほん (hon) and まい (mai) . We use こ (ko) to count small or round objects. So just attach こ (ko) to the number of small or round objects. How many balls are there? 三こ。 (san-ko.) How many eggs 八こ。 (hachi-ko.) Next is ほん (hon) which is used to count long objects such as bottles, pencils or tubes. So just attach ほん (hon) to the number of long objects. Here I have some bottles. How many water bottles do you see? 五ほん。 (go-hon.) Here I have some pencils, how many do you see? 二ほん。 (ni-hon.) Third, we have まい (mai) which we use for flat, thin objects such as sheets of paper or tickets. So just add まい (mai) to the number of flat objects. Here I have some japanesepod101.com CDs. How many CDs do we have? 七まい。 (nana-mai.) And how many pieces of paper 九まい。 (kyū-mai.) Now it’s time for Hiroko’s hint. Please note that sound changes take place after certain numbers. These changes are different from counter to counter. As you can see from this chart, you should watch out for the numbers 1, 3, 6, 8, and 10 いっこ。にこ。さんこ。よんこ。ごこ。ろっこ。ななこ。はちこ。きゅうこ。じゅっこ。 (I-kko. Ni-ko. San-ko. yon-ko. Go-ko. Ro-kko. Nana-ko. Hachi-ko. Kyū-ko. Ju-kko.) いっぽん。にほん。さんぼん。よんほん。ごほん。ろっぽん。ななほん。はっぽん。きゅうほん。じゅっぽん。 (I-ppon. Ni-hon. San-bon. Yon-hon. Go-hon. Ro-ppon. Nana-hon. Ha-ppon. Kyū-hon. Ju-ppon.) but there are no special pronunciations for まい (mai) . In the next lesson, you are going to learn how to tell time. See you next time. |
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