Japanese counter word

In Japanese, counter words or counters are measure words used with numbers to count things, actions, and events. Counters are added directly after numbers. There are numerous counters, and different counters are used depending on the kind or shape of nouns that are being described.

In Japanese, as in Chinese and Korean, numerals cannot quantify nouns by themselves (except, in certain cases, for the numbers from one to ten; see below). For example, to express the idea "two dogs" in Japanese one could say either:

but just pasting and together in either order is ungrammatical. Here is the number "two", is the counter for small animals, is the possessive particle (a reversed "of", similar to the " 's" in "John's dog"), and is the word "dog".

Counters are not independent words; they must appear with a numeric prefix. The number can be imprecise: or, less commonly, , can both be used to mean "some/several/many", and, in questions, "what/how many/how much". For example:

Some nouns prefer , as in:

: "how many nights?"

: "I was gone for many days."

Counters are similar in function to the word "pieces" in "two pieces of paper" or "cups" in "two cups of coffee". However, they cannot take non-numerical modifiers. So while "two pieces of paper" translates fairly directly as:

"two green pieces of paper" must be rendered as , akin to "two pieces of green paper".

Just as in English, different counters can be used to convey different types of quantity.

There are numerous counters, and depending on the kind or shape of nouns the number is describing, different counters are used. Here, #P is placed above NP to explain Japanese's lack of plural morphology, and to make clear the # head is the stem of such morphology.

Table of traditional numerals

{| class="wikitable"

! Numeral

! Japanese

! Pronunciation (romaji)

! Writing (hiragana)

| 1

| 2

| 3

| 4

| 5

| 6

| 7

| 8

| 9

| 10

Common counters by category

This is a selective list of some of the more commonly used counting words.

{| class="wikitable"

! Pronunciation

! Japanese

! Use

! colspan="3" | People and Things

| Copies of a magazine or newspaper, or other packets of papers

| Cars, bicycles, machines, mechanical devices, household appliances

| , ,

| Cups and glasses of drink, spoonsful; cuttlefish, octopuses, crabs, squid, abalone, boats (slang)

| , ,

| Small animals, insects, fish, reptiles, amphibians, oni (demons/ogres)

| , ,

| frequently used word Long, thin objects: rivers, roads, train tracks, ties, pencils, bottles, guitars; also, metaphorically, telephone calls, train or bus routes, movies (see also: ), points or bounds in sports events. Although also means "book", the counter for (modern codex format) books is .

| ,

| Number of floors, stories

| , , , or

| frequently used word Implies that the item is small and/or round. is also used for military units.

| frequently used word Thin, flat objects: sheets of paper, photographs, plates, articles of clothing (see also: )

| People (polite) ( means "name")

| Broad, flat objects: mirrors, boards for board games (chess, igo, shogi), stages of computer games, walls of a room, tennis courts

| People (but see table of exceptions below)

| or

| People, used in the words and

| Books

| frequently used word General-purpose counter, used as part of the indigenous Japanese numbers ("one thing"), ("two things"), ("three things"), etc.

| Stories, episodes of TV series, etc.

! colspan="3" | Time, Calendar, etc.

| Seconds

| ,

| Minutes

| , also

| Months of the year. Month-long periods when read (see also: )

| ,

| Nights of a stay

| Hours of the day

| Hour-long periods

| Day of the month

| ,

| Month-long periods (see also: ). is normally abbreviated using a small katakana in modern Japanese. Alternatively , hiragana , small katakana and full-size katakana & can also be seen, although only is similarly frequent.

| Years, school years (grades); not years of age

| Days of the month (but see table of exceptions below)

| (or )

| Years of age ( is used informally as a ryakuji)

| Weeks

! colspan="3" | Extent, Frequency, etc.

| Multiples, -fold as in "twofold"

| Position, turn, sports matches

| , also

| frequently used word Occurrences, number of times, degrees of temperature or angle (see also: ).

| Tatami mats. The kanji is also read and is the same one used for the mats. The room size of a washitsu in Japan is given as a number of mats, for example 4½

|frequently used word Occurrences, number of times (see also: )

Extended list of counters

This list also includes some counters and usages that are rarely used or not widely known; other words can also be used as counters more sporadically.

{| class="wikitable"

! Pronunciation

! Japanese

! Use

| Scene of a play

| Multiples, -fold as in "twofold"

| Nights (see also: )

| Position, platform for a train line, turn, sports matches

| Small fish and shrimps (used in the fish trade; most people say instead)

| Copies of a magazine or newspaper, or other packets of papers

| Sentences

| Seconds

| Suits of clothing (see also: )

| Long, narrow things such as guns, sticks of ink, palanquins, rickshaws, violins

| Sheets, pages, leaves, tools, scissors, saws, trousers, pistols, cakes of tofu, town blocks, servings at a restaurant

| Town blocks

| Generations, historical periods, reigns

| Cars, bicycles, machines, mechanical devices, household appliances

| levels, ranks, steps (of stairs).

| Paragraphs

| , also

| Occurrences, number of times, degrees of temperature or angle (see also: ).

| Sequences of letters or drawings that you write or draw without removing your pen off the paper. Not to be confused with () below.

| ,

| Bowls of (powdered green tea); packets or doses of powdered medicine; puffs (of, e.g., a cigarette); rests or breaks

| ,

| Hanging scrolls ()

| ,

| Minutes

| Swords

| Classes (in pre-university education)

| , also

| Months of the year. Month-long periods when read (see also: )

| Words

| small container (e.g. rice cup, sake cup)

| , also

| Words

| Suits of armour, sets of furniture

| Lines of text

| Nights of a stay

| , ,

| Cups and glasses of drink, spoonfuls, cuttlefish, octopuses, crabs, squid, abalone, boats (slang)

| Losses (sports bouts)

| Boxes

| Umbrellas, parasols, tents

| gods, memorial tablets

| ,

| Gunshots, bullets, aerial fireworks; orgasms, sex acts

| ,

| Small animals, insects, fish, reptiles, amphibians, oni (ogres)

| ,

| Parts of a meal, courses (see also: )

| ,

|pieces of land and number of people

| ,

| Number of (foot)steps

| , ,

| Long, thin objects: rivers, roads, train tracks, ties, pencils, bottles, guitars; also, metaphorically, telephone calls (see also: ), train or bus routes, movies, home runs, points or bounds in sports events. Although also means "book", the counter for books is .

| ,

| Votes

| ,

| Musical beats

| Letters, kanji, kana

| Children. As in "father of two (children)", etc.

| Hours of the day

| Hour-long periods

| Tatami mats. The kanji is also read and is the same one used for the mats. The room size of a washitsu in Japan is given as a number of mats, for example 4½

| Pills/capsules

| Articles of law, thin objects, rays or streams of light, streaks of smoke or lightning

| Day of the month

| Frames

| Lessons

| Company shares; nursery trees

| ,

| Occurrences, number of times (see also: )

| ,

| Number of floors, storeys

| ,

| Countries

| ,

| (National) languages

| Strokes in kanji

| Pieces of nigiri-zushi

| Warships

| Bus routes

| Abstract matters and cases

| ,

| Houses

| Aircraft, machines

| Graves, wreaths, CPUs, reactors, elevators, dams

| Loaves of bread

| Slices (of bread, cake, sashimi etc.)

| , , , or

| General measure word, used when there is no specific counter. is also used for military units.

| Houses ( means "door")

| Schools

| Drafts of a manuscript

| Banks

| ,

| Frames, panels. is virtually unused nowadays.

| shots (of drink)

| Sections, city districts

| Haiku, senryū

| (Bank) accounts, donations ( means "opening" or "entrance")

| Groups, a pair of people (twins, a husband and a wife, dancers, etc.)

| School classes

| Desks, chairs, long-stemmed glasses

| Pairs of cup and saucer

| Pieces of music

| Board game matches (chess, igo, shogi, mahjong); radio stations, television stations

| Thin, flat objects, sheets of paper, photographs, plates, articles of clothing (see also: )

| or

| Rolls, scrolls, kan for volumes of book

| Theatrical acts

| People (polite) ( means "name")

| Mirrors, boards for board games (chess, igo, shogi), stages of computer games, walls of a room, tennis courts

| Cannons

| Questions

| Years, school years (grades); not years of age

| Days of the month (but see table of exceptions below)

| People (but see table of exceptions below)

| Food portions (without exceptions, unlike above)

| Boxes made of folded paper (compare to above, which refers to boxes in general)

| ,

| Pages

| Cases, examples

| Bows during worship at a shrine

| finger rings or necklace loops

| or

| People, used in the words and .

| Wheels, flowers

| Railway cars

| or

| Years of age

| Chests of drawers, flags

| Books

| Seats, rakugo shows, (drinking) parties

| Ships, half of a pair (e.g., half of a folding screen), item carried in a bundle (fish, birds, arrows etc.)

| Parts of a meal, courses (see also: )

| used for businesses, i.e.

| Sets of things, such as documents or furniture

| Wins (sports bouts)

| Tanka

| Weeks

| or

| Kinds, species

| Pairs of footwear, pairs of socks, stockings, tabi

| Pairs

| bundles (of banknotes), bunches (of flowers, vegetables), sheaves

| Images, statues, person's remains, dolls, androids, humanoid robots

| Bags of rice

| Drops of liquid

| Points, dots, pieces of a set

| Large animals, cattle, elephants, whales, dolphins, butterflies ( means "head")

| Time periods, a sixth of either day or night (in the traditional, obsolete way of telling time). See also:

| Combinations, puzzle solutions

| Used as part of the indigenous Japanese numbers , , etc.

| Letters

| Commonly used unit of area equal to 3.3 square metres.

| Almonds, grain

| Telephone calls (see also: )

| , ,

| Birds, rabbits. means "feather" or "wing."

| Bundles

| Stories, episodes of TV series, etc.

| Nights (see also: )

| Pairs of chopsticks; bowls of rice

Euphonic changes

Systematic changes occur when particular numbers precede counters that begin with certain phonemes. For example, + → . The details are listed in the table below.

This can be the result of the morpho-phonological phenomenon of historical sound changes, as shown by the voicing of :

change from glottal to bilabial .

It may also be that some counters carry features which are responsible for for singular, dual, and plural nouns, where singular carries [+singular, −augmented] features, dual carries [−singular, −augmented] features, and plural carries [−singular, +augmented] features.

These changes are followed fairly consistently but exceptions and variations between speakers do exist. Where variations are common, more than one alternative is listed.

is replaced by either or () followed by a doubled consonant before the voiceless consonants as shown in the table. is the older form, but it has been replaced by in the speech of recent generations.

{| class="wikitable"

! Numeral

! k- ( etc.)

! s/sh- ( etc.)

! t/ch- ( etc.)

! h- ( )

! f- ()

! p- ( etc.)

! w- ()

| 1

| 3

| 4

| 6

| 8

| 10

| 100

| 1000

| 10000

| 何

Exceptions

The traditional numbers are used by and for young children to give their ages, instead of using the age counter (or ) .

Some counters, notably and , use the traditional numerals for some numbers as shown in the table below. Other uses of traditional numbers are usually restricted to certain phrases, such as and (one and two months respectively), (a single word) and (once).

Sometimes common numbers that have a derived meaning are written using different kanji. For example, (alone) is written , and (once more, another time) is normally written instead of . The counter for months (derived from kanji ) is commonly written .

and are alternatives for 7, and are alternatives for 4, and and are alternatives for 9. In those three pairs of options, , and respectively are more commonly used. Some counters, however, notably (people), (month of the year), (day of the month, days), (time of day) and (hours) take certain alternatives only. These are shown in the table below.

While (occurrences) and (0.01 yen, now rarely used) follow the euphonic changes listed above, homophones (stories/floors of a building) and (1000) are slightly different as shown below, although these differences are not followed by all speakers. Thus ("third floor") can be read either or , while ("three times") can only be read .

{| class="wikitable"

! Numeral

| 1

|<br />

| 2

|<br />

| 3

|<br />

| 4

|<br />

| 5

|<br />

| 6

|<br />

| 7

|<br />

| 8

|<br />

| 9

|<br />

| 10

|<br />

| 14

|17

|19

| 20

| 24

Ordinal numbers

In general, the counter words mentioned above are cardinal numbers, in that they indicate quantity. To transform a counter word into an ordinal number that denotes position in a sequence, is added to the end of the counter. Thus "one time" would be translated as , whereas "the first time" would be translated as .

This rule is inconsistent, however, as counters without the suffix are often used interchangeably with cardinal and ordinal meanings. For example, can mean both "three floors" and "third floor."

Periods of time

To express a period of time one may add to the following words: , , , (and its irregular readings aside from ), , and . Usage varies depending on the word, though. For example, omitting in the case of would be a mistake, whereas and are both in frequent use. In addition, is rarely heard due to essentially being superfluous, the already functioning to express the length.

Counter for rabbits

The counter for rabbits is (), which is the same as the counter for birds. Usually, () is used for "small-to-medium-size animals", therefore, the counter for rabbits is an exception. There are many theories about why () is used for rabbits instead of ().

One of the theories is that in Edo-era, eating four-legged animals was strictly forbidden by the government, and people were not allowed to consume rabbit meat. Then, people started to categorize rabbits as birds so that they could consume rabbit meat, and the counter was also changed from () to (). Takemitsu says that the origin of the word rabbit, , is which describes birds feather: therefore, the counter, (), is used for rabbits.

References

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External links

About.com - Counters
A list of numeral counters with ichi/hito set indicated.