Number & Counters - EXPLAINED

As promised I'll explain how counters work and I have added a few charts to explain it in more detail.

Japanese has two different numerical systems:

• Traditional Japanese Numbers (like ひとつ、ふたつ、みっつ etc. which goes only as far as 10, after which the other system is used like じゅういち)  
• Chinese Origin Numbers (like いち、に、さん etc. combined with a counter such as だい when counting things)

The word order for counting in a sentence is as follows:

NOUN + を + QUANTITY
__________________________________

 りんご を ふたつ ください

 (Please give me two apples) 

Now let us start learning counters for certain types of objects from my freshly made charts:

 

1st Column:

Used for shapeless objects that are not categorised like apples, keys or even ideas.

2nd Column:

Used for people. For 7people, you can say しちにん if you like, but I left it as ななにん, because it is easier to remember seeing as most of the counters use it.

3rd Column:

Used for ordinal numbers such as 1st place.

4th Column:

Used for thin and flat objects like shirts, stamps, pieces of paper etc.

1st Column

Used for television set, computers, cameras or bicycles etc. just as I said last lesson.

In the other three Columns, for number 10, it can also be じっ instead of じゅっ so じっさい、じっさつ、じっちゃく, but I kept it the way it is, because again to keep it simple.

If everything looks similar it will make memorising them a lot easier.  

1st Column:

Used for a time or occasion of occurrence like twice a day いちにち　に　にかい.

2nd Column:

Used for small objects like dice, eraser or clips etc.

3rd Column:

You can say さんぞく instead of さんそく and for 10 it's the same as before じっかい、じっこ、じっそく、じっけん.

1st Column:

Used for floors of a building. You can say さんがい for 3 instead and in the question you can say なんがい.

2nd Column:

Used for thin and long objects like pencils, bananas, bottles etc.

3rd Column:

Used for liquids in glasses or cups or spoonfuls etc.

4th Column:

Used for small animals like cats and used for fish and insects.

In all the charts the last row has a question mark ?, it is the question you should use to ask about that specific object.

NOTE: 

As I had said earlier, some of the sounds change, so be sure to read them carefully and remember, these are not the only counters, counters are endless, but I'll work hard to provide you with as many charts as possible in time. In the meantime, visit Tofugu for a very thorough explanation of counters, if you find yourself still confused.

We will look at examples in future lessons, just try to memorise them for now. Here's a cute song to help you through it:

じゃまた, さようなら！！！