Japanese Counters

Last time, you learned the Japanese counting system in terms of pronunciation. As you know now, there are two ways to count, some of which have irregular pronunciations. In this lesson, you will learn the usage depending on contexts.

Explanation for How Japanese Counters Work

When you count a car in English, you can just say “one car.” However, you cannot say “一車” in Japanese. You have to use various counters depending on what you will count. As for cars, you have to use 台だい like “一台いちだい: one car.” This is one of the trickiest things with learning Japanese. There are counters for different types of objects.

Common Counters

個 （こ） Articles (General Goods)	枚 （まい） Flat Objects	本 （ほん） Long Cylindrical Objects
台 （だい） Machines and Vehicles	匹 （ひき） Small Animals	冊 （さつ） Books
人 （にん） People	階（かい） Floors	歳 （さい） Ages

• 一, 三, 六, 八, and 十 often have irregular pronunciations.
• The exception of 十 is officially pronounced as “じっ” like “じっこ,” “じっぽん,” and “じっぴき.” However, that’s used by mainly TV reporters and announcers.
• With age, it is more common to pronounce 二十歳 as はたち rather than にじゅっさい

As the table shows, you need to select a proper counter depending on the object, and with this the pronunciation will vary. For example, when you count air-conditioners in Japanese, you say “一台いちだい.” When you count a box of tissues, you say “一いっ個こ.” When you count a pizza, you say “一枚いちまい.” This is how Japanese counters work.

Practical Usages in Reality

Do native speakers correctly use counters every time? The answer is no. We often make mistakes or intentionally use wrong ones for the sake of simplicity.

For example, when you count chopsticks, the counter: 膳ぜん is right. However, a lot of people count chopsticks with 本ほん. Although it’s not right, 本ほん is applicable because of the form of chopsticks. What we wanted to say here is that you don’t need be a perfectionist. Of course, it’s better that you can use every counter correctly, but actually, it is a fact that most native speakers can’t do it themselves.

Generic Counter: つ

From one to ten, there is an alternative way to count called the つ-method. This is very useful and can be used for generic objects. For instance, take the counters 台だい and 個こ, both of these can be used when counting a mobile phone, because a mobile phone is both a machine and an article (general good); however, you can still use the つ method for it.

A: How many mobile phones do you have?
B: 二ふたつです。

The above response is very natural. Note: つ-method cannot be used for animated objects such as people and animals. If you use this for people, you will look very rude.

Example

The picture shows four bottles of water. How do you think native speakers would count them? Possible answers are 本ほん: Long Cylindrical Objects, つ: Generic Objects, and 個こ: Articles (General Goods). We guess that the majority of answers are 本ほん because of the form of the bottles, but a certain number of people count them with つ or 個こ. That’s one of the reasons why you don’t have to pursue perfection. It’s not necessarily that there is only one answer.

The picture shows the second floor in a building. How do you express it in Japanese? In this case, we’re sure that every Japanese person will use 階かい like 二に階かい. If specific counters are available, you should use it. With objects in which you need to judge based on the form or the attribute, e.g. when you may need to use 個こ, 本ほん, 枚まい, and 台だい, the つ-method is usually applicable.

Time Related Expressions

Time related expressions are one of the most frequently used words in everyday life and thus we will specifically pick it up here.

Year: 年ねん

When you express years, we assume that you will often use a much higher number like 2016. You can do this in the same way that you use the counter 年ねん. For example, when you say 1999 in Japanese, it will be “1999年（せんきゅうひゃくきゅうじゅうきゅうねん）.

昭しょう和わ era　1926 ～ 1989
平成へいせい era　1989 ～ Present

One tricky thing is that there are two calendars in Japan. The format: 2016年（にせんじゅうろくねん） is based on western calendar while we sometimes express years in Japanese calendar like this “平成二十八年（へいせい にじゅうはちねん）, which is equivalent to 2016. In everyday life, there will be no problem if you can express years in the western calendar. However, the Japanese government may require you to fill out some forms with years in the Japanese calendar. You may need to know when your birthday is in the Japanese calendar. Take it easy. There is a conversion table. *In the western calendars, numerals are common.

Month: 月がつ

It’s simpler than other languages to express months in Japanese. You can just count numbers with the counter: 月がつ. You don’t have to memorize specific words like “January” in English.

Day: 日にち

This is a little complicated in comparison with others. The counter for days of the month is 日にち and you can express days by saying numbers with that like 十一日（じゅういちにち） apart from the exceptions marked in red. In writing, there is no difference, but pronunciation works very uniquely.

Now, you know how to express the date in Japanese. Let’s say the date of your birthday in Japanese. The order of dates should be YYYY年 / MM月 / DD日. In my case, 1987年2月6日（せんきゅうひゃくはちじゅうななねん / にがつ / むいか） is my birthday.

Hour: 時じ

When it comes to expressing hours in Japanese, we guess that one question comes to your mind; how do you identify whether it’s AM or PM? In Japanese, we have the words, “午ご前ぜん: AM” and “午後ごご: PM”, and you can say like this “午ご前ぜん九時くじ: 9:00AM.” However, we more commonly express time like this: 朝あさ九時くじ or 朝あさの九時くじ. The definition of time will vary depending on people, locations and seasons. For example, from what time until when will it be morning? You can still consider the above as the basis. For reference, in business situations, especially for emails, military time (24-hour clock) is preferred. In that case, you can just write time with the counter like this “２１にじゅういち時じ,” which is equal to 午後ごご九時くじ, 夜よる九時くじ, and 夜よるの九時くじ.

Minute: 分ふん

When you express minutes in Japanese, be careful because you have several irregular pronunciations. The counter is 分ふん, but you often need to pronounce it as ぷん. Regarding 三分さんぷん, 四分よんぷん, and 八分はっぷん, some people pronounce them as さんふん, よんふん and はちふん respectively, which may be a dialect or be dependent on the generation. Thus, they are not wrong. When you express higher numbers, as you learned so far, you say a tens place number and a digit like this “二十九分 （にじゅうきゅうふん）”

Second: 秒びょう

The good news here is that the counter 秒びょう is much simpler than 分ふん. Just pay attention to 四よん秒びょう and 九きゅう秒びょう. As always, you can express higher number like this: “三十八秒（さんじゅうはちびょう）.”

Now, you know how to express specific times in Japanese. Let’s say what time it is now. In my case, it’s 夕方ゆうがたの四時四十七分三十五秒（よじ よんじゅうななふん さんじゅうごびょう）.

Duration: 間かん

You can express duration by combining other time expressions with the counter 間かん, though some of them don’t require you to do so. Let’s check the following table.

Regarding 年ねん, 分ふん, and 秒びょう, the pronunciations are the same as the time expressions and so we have omitted them from the table above. You can express a moment or a duration by using the same form, e.g. ２０００にせん年ねん can mean “year 2000” or “2000 years.” If you would like to clearly express duration, you can attach to 間かん. ２０００にせん年間ねんかん only means “2000 years.” As for 日にち, the concept is the same, but the pronunciation of 一日 needs to be changed. ついたち is never used to express duration. When it comes to 時じ and 週しゅう, you cannot omit 間かん. Thus, please consider 週しゅう間かん and 時じ間かん as the counters.

Example

五ご年ねん（間かん）:　5 years
十じゅう二に週しゅう間かん:　12 weeks
二に十じゅう四時よじ間かん: 　24 hours
五ご十じゅっ分ぷん（間かん）: 50 minutes
三さん十じゅう八はち秒びょう（間かん）: 38 seconds

Note: When you express duration using two units like “10 hours and 30 minutes,” the counter: 間かん is always omitted except for 週しゅう間かん and 時じ間かん

Correct: 十じゅう時じ間かん三さん十じゅっ分ぷん
Wrong: 十時間三十分間

You can also express the above by using the particle と like 十じゅう時じ間かんと三さん十じゅっ分ぷん. When you use big and small units together like 1 year and 1 week, this expression is more common.

Unnatural: 一年一週間
Natural: 一年いちねんと一いっ週しゅう間かん

What is ヶ?

Let’s dig into the irregular one: 月がつ. When you express duration by using 月がつ, you have to attach ヶ, which is small Katakana of ケ, but pronounced as か, and you also need to pronounce 月 as げつ. The reason is still controversial. Thus, please just memorize that you need to pronounce “numbers + かげつ” to express duration in months. More annoyingly, there are some cases that small Katakana カ, or Hiragana か is used instead of ヶ. All of them are just pronounced as “か.”

五ヶごか月げつ（間かん）:　 5 months
六ろっヵか月げつ（間かん）:　6 months
七ななかか月げつ（間かん）:　7 months

Summary

1. You need to choose a proper counter depending on what you will count.
2. Pronunciations of numerals will vary depending on counters.
3. つ-method is applicable for objects in which you need to judge based on the form or the attribute.

Have you found learning Japanese to be difficult? Don’t worry. This is one of the trickiest things. In practice, native speakers will definitely understand your speech even if you make a mistake in counters or pronunciation. As the saying goes, “Practice makes perfect.” Try to start expressing numbers in Japanese in everyday life. Next, you will learn how to use numerals in a sentence.