Japanese counter word
In Japanese, counter words or counters are measure words used with numbers to count things, actions, and events. Counters are added directly after numbers. There are numerous counters, and different counters are used depending on the kind or shape of nouns that are being described. The Japanese term,, appears to have been literally calqued from the English term auxiliary numeral used by Basil Hall Chamberlain in A Handbook of Colloquial Japanese.
In Japanese, as in Chinese and Korean, numerals cannot quantify nouns by themselves. For example, to express the idea "two dogs" in Japanese one could say either:
but just pasting 二 and 犬 together in either order is ungrammatical. Here is the number "two", is the counter for small animals, is the possessive particle, and is the word "dog".
Counters are not independent words; they must appear with a numeric prefix. The number can be imprecise: or, less commonly,, can both be used to mean "some/several/many", and, in questions, "what/how many/how much". For example:
Some nouns prefer 幾, as in:
Counters are similar in function to the word "pieces" in "two pieces of paper" or "cups" in "two cups of coffee". However, they cannot take non-numerical modifiers. So while "two pieces of paper" translates fairly directly as:
"two green pieces of paper" must be rendered as 緑の紙二枚, akin to "two pieces of green paper".
Just as in English, different counters can be used to convey different types of quantity.
There are numerous counters, and depending on the kind or shape of nouns the number is describing, different counters are used.
Grammatically, counter words can appear either before or after the noun they count. They generally occur after the noun, and if used before the noun, they emphasize the quantity; this is a common mistake for English learners of Japanese. For example:
In contrast:
would only be appropriate when emphasizing the number as in responding with " drank two bottles of beer" to "How many beers did you drink?".
Phrase structure involving numerals and counters
In generative grammar, one proposed structure of Japanese nominal phrases includes three layers of functional projections: #P, CaseP, and QuantifierP. Here, #P is placed above NP to explain Japanese's lack of plural morphology, and to make clear the # head is the stem of such morphology. This structure relies on movement in order to satisfy agreement via extended projection principle features.Substitution of counters
In Japanese, virtually all nouns must use a counter to express number because Japanese lacks singular/plural morphology. In this sense, virtually all Japanese nouns are mass nouns. This grammatical feature can result in situations where one is unable to express the number of a particular object in a syntactically correct way because one does not know, or cannot remember, the appropriate counting word. With quantities from one to ten, this problem can often be sidestepped by using the traditional numerals, which can quantify many nouns without help. For example, "four apples" is りんご四個 where is the counter, but can also be expressed, using the traditional numeral four, as りんご四つ. These traditional numerals cannot be used to count all nouns, however; some, including nouns for people and animals, require a proper counter.Some of the more common counters may substitute for less common ones. For example, 匹 is often used for all animals, regardless of size. However, many speakers will prefer to use the traditionally correct counter, 頭, when speaking of larger animals such as horses. This yields a range of possible counters, with differing degrees of usage and acceptability – for example, when ordering kushikatsu, one may order them as 二串, 二本, or 二つ, in decreasing order of precision.
Counters may be intentionally misused for humorous, stupid, or insulting effects. For example, the phrase 男一匹, uses 匹, the counter for animals, instead of the typical counters for people.
Common counters by category
This is a selective list of some of the more commonly used counting words.Extended list of counters
This list also includes some counters and usages that are rarely used or not widely known; other words can also be used as counters more sporadically.| Pronunciation | Japanese | Use |
| ば | Scene of a play | |
| ばい | Multiples, -fold as in "twofold" | |
| ばん | Nights | |
| ばん | Position, platform for a train line, turn, sports matches | |
| び | Small fish and shrimps | |
| ぶ | Copies of a magazine or newspaper, or other packets of papers | |
| ぶん | Sentences | |
| びょう | Seconds | |
| ちゃく | Suits of clothing | |
| ちょう | Long, narrow things such as guns, sticks of ink, palanquins, rickshaws, violins | |
| ちょう | Sheets, pages, leaves, tools, scissors, saws, trousers, pistols, cakes of tofu, town blocks, servings at a restaurant | |
| ちょう | Town blocks | |
| だい | Generations, historical periods, reigns | |
| だい | Cars, bicycles, machines, mechanical devices, household appliances | |
| だん | levels, ranks, steps. | |
| だんらく | Paragraphs | |
| ど, also たび | Occurrences, number of times, degrees of temperature or angle. | |
| ふで | Sequences of letters or drawings that you write or draw without removing your pen off the paper. Not to be confused with below. | |
| ふく, ぷく | Bowls of ; packets or doses of powdered medicine; puffs ; rests or breaks | |
| ふく, ぷく | Hanging scrolls | |
| ふん, ぷん | Minutes | |
| ふり | Swords | |
| がっきゅう | Classes | |
| がつ, also つき | Months of the year. Month-long periods when read | |
| ご | Words | |
| ごう | small container | |
| ごん, also こと | Words | |
| ぐ | Suits of armour, sets of furniture | |
| ぎょう | Lines of text | |
| はく | Nights of a stay | |
| はい, ぱい, ばい | Cups and glasses of drink, spoonfuls, cuttlefish, octopuses, crabs, squid, abalone, boats | |
| はい | Losses | |
| はこ | Boxes | |
| はり | Umbrellas, parasols, tents | |
| はしら | gods, memorial tablets | |
| はつ, ぱつ | Gunshots, bullets, aerial fireworks; orgasms, sex acts | |
| ひき, ぴき | Small animals, insects, fish, reptiles, amphibians, oni | |
| ひん, ぴん | Parts of a meal, courses | |
| ひつ, ぴつ | pieces of land and number of people | |
| ほ, ぽ | Number of steps | |
| ほん, ぽん, ぼん | Long, thin objects: rivers, roads, train tracks, ties, pencils, bottles, guitars; also, metaphorically, telephone calls, train or bus routes, movies, home runs, points or bounds in sports events. Although 本 also means "book", the counter for books is. | |
| ひょう, ぴょう | Votes | |
| ひょうし, びょうし | Musical beats | |
| じ | Letters, kanji, kana | |
| じ | Children. As in "father of two ", etc. | |
| じ | Hours of the day | |
| じかん | Hour-long periods | |
| じょう | Tatami mats. The kanji 畳 is also read and is the same one used for the mats. The room size of a washitsu in Japan is given as a number of mats, for example 4½ | |
| じょう | Pills/capsules | |
| じょう | Articles of law, thin objects, rays or streams of light, streaks of smoke or lightning | |
| か | Day of the month | |
| か | Frames | |
| か | Lessons | |
| かぶ | Company shares; nursery trees | |
| かげつ | , 箇月 | Month-long periods. 箇 is normally abbreviated using a small katakana ヶ in modern Japanese. Alternatively 個, hiragana か, small katakana ヵ and full-size katakana カ & ケ can also be seen, although only か is similarly frequent. |
| かい | Occurrences, number of times | |
| かい, がい | Number of floors, storeys | |
| かこく | , 箇国 | Countries |
| かこくご | , 箇国語 | languages |
| かく | Strokes in kanji | |
| かん | Pieces of nigiri-zushi | |
| かん | Warships | |
| けいとう | Bus routes | |
| けん | Abstract matters and cases | |
| けん, げん | Houses | |
| き | Aircraft, machines | |
| き | Graves, wreaths, CPUs, reactors, elevators, dams | |
| きん | Loaves of bread | |
| きれ | Slices | |
| こ | ,,, or | General measure word, used when there is no specific counter. 個 is also used for military units. |
| こ | Houses | |
| こう | Schools | |
| こう | Drafts of a manuscript | |
| こう | Banks | |
| こま | , | Frames, panels. 齣 is virtually unused nowadays. |
| こん | shots | |
| く | Sections, city districts | |
| く | Haiku, senryū | |
| くち | accounts, donations | |
| くみ | Groups, a pair of people | |
| くらす | School classes | |
| きゃく | Desks, chairs, long-stemmed glasses | |
| きゃく | Pairs of cup and saucer | |
| きょく | Pieces of music | |
| きょく | Board game matches ; radio stations, television stations | |
| まい | Thin, flat objects, sheets of paper, photographs, plates, articles of clothing | |
| まき or かん | Rolls, scrolls, kan for volumes of book | |
| まく | Theatrical acts | |
| めい | People | |
| めん | Mirrors, boards for board games, stages of computer games, walls of a room, tennis courts | |
| もん | Cannons | |
| もん | Questions | |
| ねん | Years, school years ; not years of age | |
| にち | Days of the month | |
| にん | People | |
| にんまえ | Food portions | |
| おり | Boxes made of folded paper | |
| ぺーじ | , | Pages |
| れい | Cases, examples | |
| れい | Bows during worship at a shrine | |
| れん | finger rings or necklace loops | |
| り | り or | People, used in the words 一人 and 二人. |
| りん | Wheels, flowers | |
| りょう | Railway cars | |
| さい | or | Years of age |
| さお | Chests of drawers, flags | |
| さつ | Books | |
| せき | Seats, rakugo shows, parties | |
| せき | Ships, half of a pair, item carried in a bundle | |
| しな | Parts of a meal, courses | |
| しゃ | used for businesses, i.e. 会社 | |
| しき | Sets of things, such as documents or furniture | |
| しょう | Wins | |
| しゅ | Tanka | |
| しゅう | Weeks | |
| しゅるい or しゅ | or | Kinds, species |
| そく | Pairs of footwear, pairs of socks, stockings, tabi | |
| そう | Pairs | |
| たば | bundles, bunches, sheaves | |
| たい | Images, statues, person's remains, dolls, androids, humanoid robots | |
| たわら | Bags of rice | |
| てき | Drops of liquid | |
| てん | Points, dots, pieces of a set | |
| とう | Large animals, cattle, elephants, whales, dolphins, butterflies | |
| とき | Time periods, a sixth of either day or night. See also: | |
| とおり | Combinations, puzzle solutions | |
| つ | つ | Used as part of the indigenous Japanese numbers 一つ, 二つ, 三つ etc. |
| つう | Letters | |
| つぼ | Commonly used unit of area equal to 3.3 square metres. | |
| つぶ | Almonds, grain | |
| つうわ | Telephone calls | |
| わ, ば, ぱ | Birds, rabbits. 羽 means "feather" or "wing." | |
| わ | Bundles | |
| わ | Stories, episodes of TV series, etc. | |
| や | Nights | |
| ぜん | Pairs of chopsticks; bowls of rice |
Euphonic changes
Systematic changes occur when particular numbers precede counters that begin with certain phonemes. For example, 一 + 回 → 一回. The details are listed in the table below.This can be the result of the morpho-phonological phenomenon of historical sound changes, as shown by the voicing of 匹 :
change from glottal to bilabial.
It may also be that some counters carry features which are responsible for for singular, dual, and plural nouns, where singular carries features, dual carries features, and plural carries features.
These changes are followed fairly consistently but [|exceptions] and variations between speakers do exist. Where variations are common, more than one alternative is listed.
is replaced by either or followed by a doubled consonant before the voiceless consonants as shown in the table. is the older form, but it has been replaced by in the speech of recent generations.
| Numeral | k- | s/sh- | t/ch- | h- | f- | p- | w- |
| 1 | いっか | いっさ | いった | いっぱ | いっぷ | いっぱ | |
| 3 | さんば | さんぷ | さんば | ||||
| 4 | よんは よんぱ | よんふ よんぷ | よわ よんわ よんば | ||||
| 6 | ろっか | ろっぱ | ろっぷ | ろっぱ | ろくわ ろっぱ | ||
| 8 | はっか | はっさ | はった | はっぱ | はっぷ | はっぱ | はっぱ はちわ |
| 10 | じっか じゅっか | じっさ じゅっさ | じった じゅった | じっぱ じゅっぱ | じっぷ じゅっぷ | じっぱ じゅっぱ | じっぱ |
| 100 | ひゃっか | ひゃっぱ | ひゃっぷ | ひゃっぱ | |||
| 1000 | せんば | せんぷ | |||||
| 10000 | まんば | まんぷ | |||||
| 何 | なんば | なんぷ |
Exceptions
The traditional numbers are used by and for young children to give their ages, instead of using the age counter 歳 .Some counters, notably 日 and 人, use the traditional numerals for some numbers as shown in the table below. Other uses of traditional numbers are usually restricted to certain phrases, such as 一月 and 二月, 一言 and 一度 .
Sometimes common numbers that have a derived meaning are written using different kanji. For example, is written 独り, and is normally written 再び instead of 二度. The counter for months is commonly written ヶ月.
and are alternatives for 7, and are alternatives for 4, and and are alternatives for 9. In those three pairs of options,, and respectively are more commonly used. Some counters, however, notably 人, 月, 日, 時 and 時間 take certain alternatives only. These are shown in the table below.
While 回 and 銭 follow the euphonic changes listed above, homophones 階 and 千 are slightly different as shown below, although these differences are not followed by all speakers. Thus 三階 can be read either or, while 三回 can only be read.
| Numeral | つ | 日 | 人 | 年 | 月 | 時 | 分 | 百 | 千 | 歳 | 階 |
| 1 | ひとつ | ||||||||||
| 2 | ふたつ | ||||||||||
| 3 | みっつ | ||||||||||
| 4 | よっつ | ||||||||||
| 5 | いつつ | ||||||||||
| 6 | むっつ | ||||||||||
| 7 | ななつ | ||||||||||
| 8 | やっつ | ||||||||||
| 9 | ここのつ | ||||||||||
| 10 | とお | ||||||||||
| 14 | |||||||||||
| 17 | |||||||||||
| 19 | |||||||||||
| 20 | |||||||||||
| 24 | |||||||||||
| 何 |
Ordinal numbers
In general, the counter words mentioned above are cardinal numbers, in that they indicate quantity. To transform a counter word into an ordinal number that denotes position in a sequence, 目 is added to the end of the counter. Thus "one time" would be translated as 一回, whereas "the first time" would be translated as 一回目.This rule is inconsistent, however, as counters without the suffix are often used interchangeably with cardinal and ordinal meanings. For example, 三階 can mean both "three floors" and "third floor."
Periods of time
To express a period of time one may add 間 to the following words: 秒, 分, 時, 日, 週, ヶ月 and 年. Usage varies depending on the word, though. For example, omitting in the case of 時間 would be a mistake, whereas and are both in frequent use. In addition, is rarely heard due to essentially being superfluous, the already functioning to express the length.Counter for rabbits
The counter for rabbits is, which is the same as the counter for birds. Usually, is used for "small-to-medium-size animals", therefore, the counter for rabbits is an exception. There are many theories about why is used for rabbits instead of .One of the theories is that in Edo-era, eating four-legged animals was strictly forbidden by the government, and people were not allowed to consume rabbit meat. Then, people started to categorize rabbits as birds so that they could consume rabbit meat, and the counter was also changed from to . Another theory is that taste of rabbit meat is similar to bird meat, and in addition, the rabbits were captured using a net just like birds so is used instead of . Takemitsu says that the origin of the word rabbit, 兎, is 羽 which describes birds feather: therefore, the counter,, is used for rabbits.