Reading
助 数 詞
Meaning
English
Dutch
German
Spanish- linguisticsnouncounter, counter word, measure word
- {Jap.spraakk.} maatwoord, maataanduider
- Zählwort (Wort, das an Zahlen gehängt wird um klarer zu machen, was gezählt wird)
- sufijo con función de contador
How to write
Japanese counters
Counting in Japanese isn't as straightforward as in English.
In Japanese, to count things, events or actions you need to use special words called counters. The Japanese numerals cannot be used directly with a noun.. 1
There are too many counters and you need to use a different one depending on what you want to count. Using the wrong counter is grammatically incorrect. If you are counting people, you must use the people counter, etc. Sometimes, it is acceptable to use a more generic counter when a less commonly used counter applies. 2
Most common counters
| Japanese | Use |
|---|---|
| 人 | To count the number of people |
| 本 | To count long, cylindrical objects such as bottles or chopsticks |
| 枚 | To count thin objects such as paper or shirts |
| 冊 | To count bound objects usually books |
| 匹 | To count small animals like cats or dogs |
| 歳 | To count the age of a living creatures such as people |
| 個 | To count small (often round) objects |
| 回 | To count number of times |
| ヶ所 | To count number of locations |
| つ | To count any generic object that has a rare or no counter |
Counting from 1 to 10
- Special readings appear in bold font.
View Wikipedia: Japanese counter word for a comprehensive list of Japanese counters.
See also: JapanDict: Numbers ↩
Information for this article extracted from the great Tae Kim's Guide to Learning Japanese: Numbers and counting under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike License. ↩