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Basic Japanese Counter Words

This document provides Japanese counters used with people, things, time periods, extent and frequency. It lists the Japanese reading and meaning for counters like hon for long thin objects, nin for people, gatsu for months, and kai for occurrences or times. The summary provides essential meanings and uses of counters in 3 sentences.

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Carlos Moreno
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80 views3 pages

Basic Japanese Counter Words

This document provides Japanese counters used with people, things, time periods, extent and frequency. It lists the Japanese reading and meaning for counters like hon for long thin objects, nin for people, gatsu for months, and kai for occurrences or times. The summary provides essential meanings and uses of counters in 3 sentences.

Uploaded by

Carlos Moreno
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Pronunciation Japanese Use

People and Things

ぶ bu 部 Copies of a magazine or newspaper, or other packets of papers

Cars, bicycles, machines, mechanical devices, household


だい dai 台
appliances

Cups and glasses of drink,


はい hai, ぱ
杯 spoonsful; cuttlefish, octopuses, crabs, squid, abalone, boats
い pai, ばい bai (slang)

ひき hiki, ぴ
Small animals, insects, fish, reptiles,
き piki, び 匹
amphibians, oni (demons/ogres)
き biki

frequently used word Long, thin objects: rivers, roads, train


ほん hon, ぽ tracks, ties, pencils, bottles, guitars; also, metaphorically,
ん pon, ぼ 本 telephone calls, train or bus routes, movies (see also: tsūwa),
ん bon points or bounds in sports events. Although 本 also means
"book", the counter for books is satsu.

かい kai, が
階 Number of floors, stories
い gai

個, 箇, 个, frequently used word Implies that the item is small and/or


こ ko
or ヶ round.[1] 個 is also used for military units.

frequently used word Thin, flat objects: sheets of paper,


まい mai 枚
photographs, plates, articles of clothing (see also: chaku)

めい mei 名 People (polite) (名 means "name")


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

にん nin 人 People (but see table of exceptions below)

り ri り or 人 People, used in the words 一人 (ひとり) and 二人 (ふたり)

さつ satsu 冊 Books

General-purpose counter, used as part of the indigenous


つ tsu つ Japanese numbers 一つ ("one thing"), 二つ ("two things"), 三つ
("three things"), etc.

わ wa 話 Stories, episodes of TV series, etc.

Time, Calendar, etc.

びょう byō 秒 Seconds

ふん fun, ぷ
分 Minutes
ん pun

がつ gatsu, Months of the year. Month-long periods when read tsuki (see
月
also つき tsuki also: kagetsu)

はく haku, ぱ
泊 Nights of a stay
く paku

じ ji 時 Hours of the day

じかん jikan 時間 Hour-long periods


か ka 日 Day of the month

Month-long periods (see also: gatsu). 箇 is normally abbreviated


using a small katakana ヶ in modern Japanese. Alternatively
かげつ kagetsu ヶ月, 箇月
個, hiragana か, small katakana ヵ and full-size katakana カ &
ケ can also be seen, although only か is similarly frequent.

ねん nen 年 Years, school years (grades); not years of age

にち nichi 日 Days of the month (but see table of exceptions below)

さい sai 歳 (or 才) Years of age (才 is used informally as a shorthand)

しゅう shū 週 Weeks

Extent, Frequency, etc.

ばい bai 倍 Multiples, -fold as in "twofold"

ばん ban 番 Position, turn, sports matches

ど do, also た Occurrences, number of times, degrees of temperature or angle


度
び tabi (see also: kai).

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

frequently used word Occurrences, number of times (see


かい kai 回
also: do)

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