How to Count in Japanese : Part Quatro - The Final Count Down!

Part Four: More Japanese Counters
continued

The Final Countdown - Part 4 - How to count in Japanese cont.This is the fourth lens in a series on Japanese Language learning skills. In this lens, we look at numbers, counting, and using numbers for real situations- time telling, phone numbers, address, etc.

 

10  –  JU

 

9  –  KU

 

8  –  HACHI

 

7 – SHICHI, NANA

 

6  -  ROKU

 

5  –  GO

 

4  –  YON, YO^

 

3  –  SAN

 

2  –  NI

 

1  –  ICHI

 

0 –ZERO, REI, O-MARU, MARU,  O-REI

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SOKU– pair of counter, (socks, tabi socks etc.)

It is funny how some words sound exactly like English, like soku and the word kan for can as in empty can etc.

 

ichi (1*) soku = issoku, (etc.*). ni-soku, san-zoku, yousoku, go-soku, roku-soku, nana-soku, ha-ssoku, kyu-soku, ju-soku, ju-i-ssoku, ju-ni-soku etc.

 

KEN – larger buildings, houses etc.

 

i-kken ni-ken san-gen, yon-ken, go-ken, ro-kken, nana-ken, ha-kken (This is also the verb to discover, no relation ,just a homonym**.)

 

MA– room (1, 2 , 3 bedroom house etc.)

 

ichi-ma ni-ma, san-ma, yon-ma, go-ma, roku-ma, nana-ma, hachi-ma, kyu-ma, ju-ma, ju-ichi-ma, ju-ni-ma etc

 

RETSU – line (line-up), straight line etc.

 

ichi-retsu, ni-retsu, san-retsu, yon-retsu, go-retsu, roku-retsu, shichi-retsu, nana-retsu hachi-retsu, kyu-retsu, ju-retsu, ju-ichi-retsu, ju-ni-retsu etc.

G.A.B: Japanese Counting Ghetto After-Blast Japanese words like English sometimes sound the same but are not written the same.

The Japanese language contains many homonyms (Words that sound the same yet have different meaning).** I am reminded of the Japanese word kiku. If you look up kiku in a Japanese dictionary, you will find at least 3 different ways of writing the sounds for ”kiku” (“key coo”) However, when writing the kanji for kiku there are at least three different ways. In Japanese, words are written or graphically represented by symbols called Kanji.

Kanji is the set of Chinese characters that have been imported and put into use by the Japanese since the 10th century AD. Here is an interesting example that shows how the meaning of kanji to the Chinese has diverged from the way the same kanji is used by the Japanese. If you write tegami or two kanji for the word which in Japanese means, "letter", and if you write the same two kanji and ask a Chinese person to tell you what they think it means, they will say "toilet paper". Big difference.For a fun activity do this if you have a Japanese to English dictionary - Learn all three meanings for the word kiku by looking it up. Depending on context it could be a 1. kiku v. to be effective, 2. kiku  n .chrysanthemum, 3. kiku  v. to listen.

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Forget other foreign languages. . . go Japanese!!

Japanesecounting

Japanese counting part 2

Japanese counting part 3

Japanese counting bonus lens