Oh, To Count the Ways…
As we have been learning Japanese, one of the funny things Colby and I have noticed are the many words used to count different objects. Most nouns in Japanese are mass nouns, which are nouns that are not able to be counted by themselves but need a special counting word. For example, rice is a mass noun. We can’t say “1 rice”, but instead must say “1 bowl of rice” or “1 grain of rice”. Because the majority of nouns in Japanese need counting words, there are thus a great number of counting words. These days a number are unknown and unused, but there are still many that are in use. Listed below are some common ones, some not so common ones, and some just plain funny ones.
hiki – small animals
kai – occurrences, baseball innings
nin – people
satsu – books
chaku – suits of clothing
jou – tatami mats
i – ghosts
tsuuwa – telephone calls
fuku – doses of medicine, gulps of tea, drags of a cigarette
ban – nights
gu – armor, sets of furniture
ho – folded maps
tawara – bags
jou – tablets, pills
hashira – buddhas, gods, nobles
hon – long, cylindrical things
fune – boat-shaped containers
zen – bowlfuls of rice
hatsu – gunshots
shin – received messages
hara – hard roe (whatever that is…)
moto – blades of grass, tree trunks
wa – birds, rabbits
Fascinating, huh?! Usually when used, the number comes first and then the counting word. So, for example, “obake ga 1 i desu” means “there is one ghost”.
Truly, this is not unique to Japanese as English itself has many counter words, some of which are used above. It is a tricky thing to count something in Japanese because you always have to attach the appropriate counting word. Thankfully, there are ones like “ko” for small, general items, and ones like “tsu” for various intangible items, that can be used in a broad way. However, the more accurate and fluent you want to be, the more you need to use the correct counting word!
The next time you count blades of grass, suits of clothing, or gulps of tea, please remember us and pray that we would learn to incorporate this tricky aspect of Japanese into our normal conversation.