Counters

5.3. Counters

5.3.1. Basic counters

To count things in Japanese, you cannot put nouns immediately after a number. Counters, which are added after numbers, are necessary. Do you think it is strange? English also has some counters for nouns representing things that cannot be counted as discrete objects. For instance, you would say two cups of coffee, ten pieces of paper, and fifty head of cattle. Japanese nouns resemble English abstract nouns.

There are three basic counters in Japanese.

Category

Counter

Description

human


ni	n

human beings

animate


hi	ki

life that can move, such as animals and protists, excluding human beings

inanimate

life that cannot move, such as plants, fungi, and eggs, and non-life including abstract concepts

Before counting things with counters, I'd like to introduce the genitive marker

"no", which is similar to the English suffix 's and the English word of. The word

is a postposition, which is a suffix to add a grammatical function to a noun. Postpositions are similar to prepositions, but the order of words are opposite as the name implies. The order of words for

is the same as that for 's, so A's B is the same as A

B, and A of B is the same as B

A.

It is important to know that phrases that add information to a main phrase are always placed before the main phrase in Japanese. This is a consistent rule with no exception. Linguists call it head-last. English is a head-first language, where a main phrase is placed before additional phrases, but it is not so consistent as Japanese. That-clauses and preposition phrases are good examples of the head-first rule of English; both a dog that is white and a dog with white hair are dogs. But adjectives break the rule because they are placed before a main phrase. A white dog is a kind of dog, not a kind of whiteness.

Let's get back to

. Here is an example:

Kana:
Romanization:	ne	ko	no	mi	mi
Structure:	noun (cat)		genitive marker	noun (ear)
Meaning:	a cat's ears

Japanese doesn't care much about singular, plural, definite, or indefinite, so the example can mean any combination of either a cat, the cat, cats, or the cats and either an ear, the ear, ears, or the ears. Anyway, the phrase means a kind of ear, because of the head-last rule.

Now that you know

, you can count things with counters.
Put

after counters like this:

Kana:

Romanization:

Structure:

noun
(three)

noun
(counter)

genitive
marker

noun
(cat)

Meaning:

three cats

Since cats are animals, the counter for cats is

"hiki". The Japanese word for three is

"san". The euphonic change rules of small numbers are applied to counters, so the "san" changes "h" in the "hiki" into "b". The result is

"sanbiki".

The counter

"nin" is not used for counting a person or two. There are other words for one person and two people.

Kana:

Romanization:

Meaning:

one person

Kana:

Romanization:

Meaning:

two people

Kana:

Romanization:

Meaning:

three people (three + counter)

Example:

Kana:

Romanization:

Structure:

noun
(two people)

genitive
marker

noun
(daughter)

Meaning:

two daughters

Note: If a language has counters for general nouns, it doesn't have genders, and vice versa. Both counters and genders are ways of categorizing nouns, and they don't coexist. East Asian languages and Native American languages often have counters, and other languages often have genders. English is a rare language that has neither of them.

Further readings:

Re: grammar of "no"

5.3.2. Traditional numbers

Japanese has another set of number names from the ones I explained in the small numbers chapter. They are the original number names of Japanese but were replaced by the new ones, most of which were imported from Chinese more than a thousand years ago. Now they are used only for counting inanimates, and treated as combinations of a digit and the inanimate counter

"ko". The traditional numbers are often used to count abstract things.

Number

Traditional Japanese


hi	to	tu


hu	ta	tu


mi	t	tu


yo	t	tu


i	tu	tu


mu	t	tu


na	na	tu


ya	t	tu


ko	ko	no	tu


tô

The ancient Japanese numbers larger than ten were almost lost. Notice that the special human counter for one person

"hitori" and that for two people

"hutari" are similar to the traditional number for one

"hitotu" and that for two

"hutatu". In fact

"ri" was a human counter in ancient Japanese. The last

"tu" in the traditional number names was an inanimate counter, but modern native Japanese speakers don't feel a boundary between a digit name and

because they are too old.

You may notice that two number names are similar when one is twice the other such as 1 and 2 (

"hitotu" and

"hutatu"), 3 and 6 (

"mittu" and

"muttu"), and 4 and 8 (

"yottu" and

"yattu"). If you find a language that has this kind of number name pairs, it will suggest a relationship to ancient Japanese. Linguists are still looking for the origin of Japanese; some say it came from Korea, some say from west Pacific islands, and some say even from south India.

A few ancient words for larger numbers survive in modern Japanese as shown below, but they are used only for a person's age and Japanese people rarely know they were numbers.

Number

Traditional Japanese

Meaning in
modern Japanese


ha	ta	ti

twenty years old
(= being an adult in Japan)


mi	so	zi

thirty years old

5.3.3. Additional counters

The three basic counters you have just learned are not all counters Japanese has. Here is a list of important additional counters.

5.3.4. Continuum counters

A continuum, which cannot be measured by an integer only, always needs appropriate units in Japanese just as in English. Length is a good example of continuum, because it cannot be measured without using a unit, and it can have a decimal value. Japan uses the metric system for scientific values. Most metric units are written with katakana, because they are imported words.

5.3.5. Euphonic change

I have explained the euphonic change rules of small numbers, and they are also used for counters. Even though counting things without using the rules is understandable, memorizing the following charts will help you speak natural Japanese.

Number

People

Animates

Inanimates


hi	to	ri


i	p	pi	ki


i	k	ko


fu	ta	ri


ni	hi	ki


ni	ko


sa	n	ni	n


sa	n	bi	ki


sa	n	ko


yo	ni	n


yo	n	hi	ki


yo	n	ko


go	ni	n


go	hi	ki


go	ko


ro	ku	ni	n


ro	p	pi	ki


ro	k	ko


na	na	ni	n


na	na	hi	ki


na	na	ko


ha	ti	ni	n


ha	p	pi	ki


ha	k	ko


kyû			ni	n


kyû			hi	ki


kyû			ko


zyû			ni	n


zyu		p	pi	ki


zyu		k	ko

100


hya		ku	ni	n


hya		p	pi	ki


hya		k	ko

1000


se	n	ni	n


se	n	bi	ki


se	n	ko

Number

Large animals

Birds

Long things


i	t	tô


i	ti	wa


i	p	po	n


ni	tô


ni	wa


ni	ho	n


sa	n	tô


sa	n	wa


sa	n	bo	n


yo	n	tô


yo	n	wa


yo	n	ho	n


go	tô


go	wa


go	ho	n


ro	ku	tô


ro	ku	wa


ro	p	po	n


na	na	tô


na	na	wa


na	na	ho	n


ha	t	tô


ha	ti	wa


ha	p	po	n


kyû			tô


kyû			wa


kyû			ho	n


zyu		t	tô


zyû			wa


zyu		p	po	n

100


hya		ku	tô


hya		ku	wa


hya		p	po	n

1000


se	n	tô


se	n	wa


se	n	bo	n

Number

Thin things

Books

Cups of liquid


i	ti	ma	i


i	s	sa	tu


i	p	pa	i


ni	ma	i


ni	sa	tu


ni	ha	i


sa	n	ma	i


sa	n	sa	tu


sa	n	ba	i


yo	n	ma	i


yo	n	sa	tu


yo	n	ha	i


go	ma	i


go	sa	tu


go	ha	i


ro	ku	ma	i


ro	ku	sa	tu


ro	p	pa	i


na	na	ma	i


na	na	sa	tu


na	na	ha	i


ha	ti	ma	i


ha	s	sa	tu


ha	p	pa	i


kyû			ma	i


kyû			sa	tu


kyû			ha	i


zyû			ma	i


zyu		s	sa	tu


zyu		p	pa	i

100


hya		ku	ma	i


hya		ku	sa	tu


hya		p	pa	i

1000


se	n	ma	i


se	n	sa	tu


se	n	ba	i