Once you’ve mastered basic counting in Japanese, you’re ready to start studying
Japanese counters. What are counters? In Japanese, there are words that indicate
what kind of object is being counted. These words most often have no English translation.
In other words, you do not say “san orenji さんオレンジ (三オレンジ)” to mean
“three oranges [the fruit].” Instead, you would say “san-ko no orenji さんこのオレンジ
(三個のオレンジ).” No の is a preposition that means “of” and it’s often used with
counters. (Sometimes you will see the preposition object marker wo を instead
when the object is stated before the number; for example “enpitsu wo sanbon
えんぴつを三本” means “three pencils.”) You’ll learn more about the counter ko 個
below.
There are over 100 different types of counters in Japanese, but not all of them
are used in everyday conversation. Don’t get overwhelmed! We’ll learn just three
common counters this lesson, although to use two of the counters, you’ll also need
to study a new way to count from 1-10.
Kunyomi Numerals: 1-10 and Counting Assorted Things
Let’s start by studying the second way to pronounce numerals in Japanese. When you
studied basic counting in the previous lesson, you were learning the onyomi
reading, the Cantonese (a dialect of Chinese)-based pronunciation. The kunyomi
readings are the original Japanese readings of the kanji and they’re sometimes used
with counters to count people and objects.
The counter tsu つ is a generic counter used to count assorted inanimate objects
that aren’t classified into any other counter category. This includes objects such
as furniture, bags, and certain types of food—just about anything that’s doesn’t
have a specific shape like “long and cylindrical” or “thin and flat.” Although you
may not know enough to know exactly what kinds of items are counted with tsu
つ, you should study the tsu つ counter because you will encounter it often
in the Japanese language.
Here are the kunyomi pronunciations of numerals 1 to 10 with the counter tsu
つ in parentheses:
|
Numeral
|
Romaji
|
Kana
|
Kanji
|
|
1
|
hito(tsu)
|
ひと(つ)
|
一(つ)
|
|
2
|
futa(tsu)
|
ふた(つ)
|
二(つ)
|
|
3
|
mi(ttsu)
|
み(っつ)
|
三(つ)
|
|
4
|
yo(ttsu)
|
よ(っつ)
|
四(つ)
|
|
5
|
itsu(tsu)
|
いつ(つ)
|
五(つ)
|
|
6
|
mu(ttsu)
|
む(っつ)
|
六(つ)
|
|
7
|
nana(tsu)
|
なな(つ)
|
七(つ)
|
|
8
|
ya(ttsu)
|
や(っつ)
|
八(つ)
|
|
9
|
kokono(tsu)
|
ここの(つ)
|
九(つ)
|
|
10
|
too
|
とお
|
十
|
Notice that 10 actually doesn’t have a tsu つ! When counting 10 assorted objects
that don’t fit into any other form of counter, you don’t use tsu つ, just
the kunyomi pronunciation of the word. In other words, while “nine bags”
is "kokono-tsu no fukuro" 九つの袋, “ten bags” is "too no fukuro" 十の袋.
Most numbers greater than 10 don’t use the tsu つ counter, either, and they
revert back to their onyomi reading. So “eleven bags” is just "juu-ichi no
fukuro" 十一の袋.