Learn how to count things in Japanese, using the special counters for each type of word. And learn how to make delicious apple toast at the same time!

Key Topics Covered

Dialogue

Here is a recipe for Shizu’s delicious Apple Toast. Please try it and let us know if you liked it.

りんごのトースト（四人分） ① １こ の りんご を うすく 切ります。 ② ４まい の パン を ようい します。 ③ りんご を バター で いためます。 ④ パン を 1まい トースト します。 ⑤ その パン の 上 に、③ の りんご を のせます。 ⑥ その 上 に、スプーン１ぱい の れんにゅう を かけます。 ⑦ 別 の１まい の パン を トースト します。 ⑧ ５番目 の 作り方 から くりかえします。 ⑨ あつい カップ を 四つ ようい して おきましょう。

Roomaji:

Ringo no toosuto (yonin bun) ① Ikko no ringo o usuku kirimasu. ② Yonmai no pan o youishimasu. ③ Ringo o bataa de itamemasu. ④ Pan o ichimai toosutoshimasu. ⑤ Sono pan no ue ni, san no ringo o nosemasu. ⑥ Sono ue ni, supuun ippai no rennyuu o kakemasu. ⑦ Betsu no ichimai no pan o toosutoshimasu. ⑧ Goban me no tsukurikata kara kurikaeshimasu. ⑨ Atsui kappu o yottsu youi shite okimashou.

English:

Apple toast (four servings / serves four people) 1. Slice an apple. 2. Prepare four slices of bread. 3. Saute the apple with butter. 4. Toast a slice of bread. 5. Put the apple from (step) 3 on the bread. 6. Spread a spoon of condensed milk over it. 7. Toast one more slice of bread. 8. Repeat the method from the fifth (step). 9. You’ll prepare four hot cups.

Vocabulary

Note: Here, the apple is counted as １こ (ikko), but things with 個 (ko) are also counted in another way “一つ、二つ…”. That means, you can use both of them (１こ or 一つ) for round and small things.

Counting Things

In Japanese there are some basic counters, that can be used for counting things in general. There are also some special words for counting different things, such as big animals, birds, flat things or years of age.

The hard thing about Japanese numbers are not the actual numbers, but how they are used to count things. For each thing you count, you have to add a suffix (ending) to the word, describing what type of thing you are counting. Let’s look at some examples.

General Counters

First of all, there is a way to count things in general. This can be used if you do not know the special counter for the type of thing you are counting.

Counting people

In some other cases counting things should be done with special words. For instance when counting people. The word for people is hito (ひと / 人). When counting, the same kanji is used, but it is read にん (nin) – except for when saying one and two people.

Examples

Japanese: ふたり 　の　がいじん　です。 さんにん　の　きょうだい　です。 よにん　の　ともだち　です。 わたし　は　ひとり　です。
。
Romaji: futari no gaijin desu. sannin no kyoudai desu yonin no tomodachi desu. watashi wa hitori desu.	English: (There are) two foreigners. (There are) three brothers. (There are) four friends. I am alone.

Other counters

There are numerous other counters in Japanese. Here are just a few:

Examples

Balls, round or small things are counted using the counter こ (ko).

いっこ	。	ikko	。	One (round thing)
にこ		niko		Two (round things)
さんこ		sanko		Three (round things)
よんこ		yonko		Four (round things)

Making Sentences

Japanese numbers are usually put in the following places in the sentences. It can be placed before the descriptive particle の (no). The counter can also be placed after the object marker を (o).

Examples

Japanese: 四人　の　けいさつかん　を　みました。 けいさつかん　を　四人　みました。 いっこ　の　りんご　を　たべました。 りんご　を　いっこ　たべました。
。
Romaji: yonin no keisatsukan o mimashita. keisatsukan o yonin mimashita. ikko no ringo o tabemashita. ringo o ikko tabemashita.	English: (I) saw four policemen. (I) saw four policemen. (I) ate one apple. (I) ate one apple.

Notes

• Read more about numbers in the Language Reference’s Numbers and Counters and for a more extensive description of different counters, see List of Counters.
• The word no “の” is often used as a possessive marker in Japanese, but as you have seen here, it can also be used to describe the word after “no” by the word or phrase preceding “no”, as in the example, “yonin no tomodachi“, which would be something like “four-people-number-of-friends” (“friends numbering four people”, “friends to the extent of four people”). Read more about the particle no in possessive form.

Author

This lesson was written by Shizu and Johan. Please let us know what you think of the article. And if you made the toasts, did you like them?

In this lesson you will read about a tense situation in the office, while you learn more about the particle に (ni), how it can be used in various ways, and how they differ.

Dialogue 1

Mr. Hayashi is in a taxi which is heading for his office. He had a cold, and had to see a doctor before going to the office because of that.

Japanese:

林：		すみません、急いでください。９時半に会議があるんです。
運転手：		ええと、右に曲がっていいですね？
林：		はい。そうだ、会社に電話しよう。
		He makes a call to the office, and his coworker Mr. Aoki  answers the phone.
青木：		あ、林さん、今どこですか？
林：		タクシーに乗っています。どうやら、会議に出られそうですよ。
青木：		それはよかった。では、また後で。
After the meeting, Mr. Hayashi and Mr. Aoki go to a coffee shop near the office to have lunch. When they get back to the office, their boss Mr. Kimura is waiting for them irritably.
木村：		(Arrogantly) どこに行っていた？
青木：		近くの喫茶店に。お昼を食べに行っていました。
木村：		林は、今朝遅れて来たな？
林：		すみません、病院に行っていました。
木村：		そんな事を言い訳にするのか。
青木：		会議がだめになったわけじゃないでしょう？
木村：		(Angily) 黙れ、お前に言ってない。
Miss Katou opens the door.
加藤：		お話中に申し訳ありませんが、木村さんにお客様です。
木村：		(In a pompous tone) わかった、すぐに行く。 (To the two men) よし、話は後だ。一日に何度も言いたくないが、俺は忙しいんだ。
青木：		(In his mind) 怒るのに忙しいんだろうね。

Roomaji:

Hayashi:		Sumimasen, isoide kudasai. 9 ji han ni kaigi ga aru n desu.
Untenshu:		Eeto, migi ni magatte ii desu ne?
Hayashi:		Hai. Sou da, kaisha ni denwashiyou.
He makes a call to the office, and his coworker Mr. Aoki answers the phone.
Aoki:		A, Hayashi-san, ima doko desu ka?
Hayashi:		Takushii ni notte imasu. Douyara, kaigi ni deraresou desu yo.
Aoki:		Sore wa yokatta. Dewa, mata ato de.
After the meeting, Mr. Hayashi and Mr. Aoki go to a coffee shop near the office to have lunch. When they get back to the office, their boss Mr. Kimura is waiting for them irritably
Kimura:		(Arrogantly) Doko ni itte ita?
Aoki:		Chikaku no kissaten ni. Ohiru o tabe ni itte imashita.
Kimura:		Hayashi wa, kesa okurete kita na?
Hayashi:		Sumimasen, byouin ni itte imashita.
Kimura:		Sonna koto o iiwake ni suru no ka.
Aoki:		Kaigi ga dame ni natta wake ja nai deshou?
Kimura:		(Angrily) Damare, omae ni itte nai.
Miss Katou opens the door.
Katou:		Ohanashi chuu ni moushiwake arimasen ga, Kimura-san ni okyakusama desu.
Kimura:		(In a pompous tone) Wakatta, sugu ni iku. (To the two men) Yoshi, hanashi wa ato da. Ichinichi ni nando mo iitaku nai ga, ore wa isogashii n da.
Aoki:		(In his mind) Okoru no ni isogashii n darou ne.

English:

Hayashi:		Excuse me, but please hurry. I have a meeting at 9:30.
Driver:		Um, we turn right here, correct?
Hayashi:		Yes. Oh, I’ll call my office.
He makes a call to the office, and his coworker Mr. Aoki answers the phone.
Aoki:		Ah, Hayashi-san, where are you now?
Hayashi:		I’m in a taxi. Looks like I’ll make it to the meeting.
Aoki:		Thank goodness. Well, see you soon.
After the meeting, Mr. Hayashi and Mr. Aoki go to a coffee shop near the office to have lunch. When they get back to the office, their boss Mr. Kimura is waiting for them irritably.
Kimura:		(Arrogantly) Where were you?
Aoki:		In a coffee shop nearby. We went there to have lunch.
Kimura:		Hayashi, you got here late this morning, didn’t you?
Hayashi:		I’m sorry, I had to go to a hospital.
Kimura:		What kind of excuse is that?
Aoki:		But that didn’t interfere with the meeting, did it?
Kimura:		(Angrily) Be quiet, I’m not speaking to you!
Miss Katou opens the door.
Katou:		I’m very sorry for interrupting while you are talking, but a guest is here to see you, Kimura-san.
Kimura:		(In a pompous tone) I see, I’ll be there right away. (To the two men) Okay, I’ll speak to you later. I don’t want to have to say it over and over again, but I am a busy man.
Aoki:		(In his mind) Probably busy getting angry!

Vocabulary

Notes on the Dialogue

As you can see, the particle “に” has lots of usages, and some of them don’t always correspond with particular English preposition or other word. In this article we will cover a couple of usages, as listed below. You can find many more in a detailed grammar book, such as for indicating time.

• Direction of an action
• Receiver of an action
• Position of something
• Purpose of an action
• Adverbs and other combinations

Direction of an action

Probably the clearest usage is when the particle is used to indicate a direction or destination of the action, or a place where an action is performed. It is probably also easy to understand when it is used to show the time when an action is done.

Note that when indicating a place where an action occurs, the particle で (de) is used.

会社に電話しよう。
kaisha ni denwa shiyou
I’ll call (my) office.

お前に言ってない。
omae ni itte nai
I’m not speaking to you.

In above case, the particle is used by putting it after an object or person which (who) is the target of the action. The similar examples:

車に乗る。
Kuruma ni noru.
I’ll get in a car.

友達にメールを送る。
Tomodachi ni meeru o okuru.
I’ll send an e-mail message to my friend.

Note that the particle を (o) is for getting out of a vehicle; for example, バスをおりる, getting off a bus.

Indicating the Receiver of an Action

On the other hand, the particle in the following example is used as “for”:

木村さんにお客様です。
kimurasan ni okyakusan desu
A guest is here for Kimura-san.
or
A guest is here to meet with Kimura-san.

Other examples:

林さんに手紙です。
Hayashi-san ni tegami desu.
Here is a letter for Hayashi-san.
or
A letter came here for Hayashi-san.

Indicating Position

When you are in a specific place, you can use the particle as English preposition “in”. This is used only for location verbs, like imasu, aru, and sumu. For action verbs, the particle should be で. It does not only work for yourself, but for anyone or anything you want to give the location of.

タクシーに乗っています。
takushii ni notte imasu
I’m in a taxi.

近くの喫茶店にいました。
chikaku no kissaten ni imashita
We were in a coffee shop nearby.

Indicating the Purpose of an Action

In this case, the particle is putting after the continuative form of the verb and indicates the purpose of the action.

お昼を食べに（そこに）行きました。

ohiru o tabe ni (soko ni) ikimashita.
We went (there) to have lunch.

Besides 行く (go), you can use verbs which express moving the place such as 来る (come), 出かける (go out // leave), 訪れる (visit), 寄る (drop in) and so on. But as for lots of verbs, you can’t use this form. Instead of “masu-stem + に”, another one like “the plain, dictionary form + ために” is used:

お昼を食べるために座りました。

Ohiru o taberu tame ni suwarimashita.

I sat down to eat lunch.

This expression is a little formal or written one rather than daily speech, but you can use this form about any verbs.

Adverbs and other Combinations

In the following case, “に” from “すぐに” isn’t used individually. Some Japanese adverbs include “に” at the end of the word such as 静かに (shizuka ni – quietly), 真面目に (majime ni – seriously) and so on. This one is used how the thing is doing.

すぐに行く。
sugu ni iku
I’ll go soon.

The following example is used by putting after a noun which is a reason, origin or motivation of the action. But this particle will be changed easily to another one depending on one after the subject, I guess.

そんな事を言い訳にするのか。
sonna koto o iiwake ni suru no ka?
Do you use such a thing as an excuse?

そんな事で言い訳をするのか。
sonna koto o iiwake o suru no ka.
Do you make an excuse with such a thing?

Indicating result of an action

In the dialogue, the following was said.

会議がだめになったわけじゃないでしょう？

Here, “だめになる” is used as a kind of an idiomatic phrase (be damaged) here, but anyway, this used as a result or change of the action.

とうとう冬になった。
toutou fuyu ni natta.
Finally it (the season) became winter.

結局失敗に終わった。
Kekkyoku shippai ni owatta.
after all, it ended up with failure.

Indicating the degree of comparison

In the dialog, the following expresson was used.

一日に何度も言いたくない。

In this case, the particle に (ni) is used to express about the degree of comparison or so.

５回に１回は満点です。
Go kai ni ikkai wa manten desu.
Once per five times is perfect (about exams) with me.

Author

This article was written by Shizu. What did you think of this lesson? Please give us your comments below!

Edited by Tony and Johan of the StudyJapanese Team

Learn to read hiragana and pronounce the Japanese alphabet through a song.

In the following video, you can see all the basic hiragana and listen to how they are pronounced. They say “Let’s learn fifty sounds” but I can only count it to 46. Anyway, good luck in learning hiragana!

You will find the transcript below the video.

Video Transcript

ごじゅうおん　を　おぼえよう
gojuuon o oboeyou
Let’s learn 50 sounds

 

まずは‥
mazu wa…
First of all…

 

あ ぎょう
a gyou
The a-row

 

あ・い・う・え・お
a i u e o

 

か ぎょう
ka gyou
The ka-row

 

か・き・く・け・こ
ka ki ku ke ko

 

さ ぎょう
sa gyou
The sa-row

さ・し・す・せ・そ
sa shi su se so

 

た ぎょう
ta gyou
The ta-row

 

た・ち・つ・て・と
ta chi tsu te to

 

な ぎょう
na gyou
The na-row

 

な・に・ぬ・ね・の
na ni nu ne no

 

は ぎょう
ha gyou
The ha-row

 

は・ひ・ふ・へ・ほ
ha hi hu he ho

 

ま ぎょう
ma gyou
The ma-row

 

ま・み・む・め・も
ma mi mu me mo

 

や ぎょう
ya gyou
The ya-row

 

や・ゆ・よ
ya yu yo

 

ら ぎょう
ra gyou
The ra-row

 

ら・り・る・れ・ろ
ra ri ru re ro

 

さいごに　みっつ
saigo ni mittsu
As for the last, three…

 

わ・を・ん
wa wo n

Learn about some traditional Japanese games in Shizu’s story on Japanese Games.

Spending Your Free Time

During お正月 (おしょうがつ – o-shougatsu – New Year Days), since nowadays lots of places are open, you can rent a DVD or video at ビデオ・ショップ (bideo shoppu – video shop), buy hot food at コンビに (conbini – convenience store), enjoy special バーゲンセール (baagen seeru – burgain sale) for お正月 (New Year Days) at デパート (depaato – department store) and so on. But before, most shops and stores were closed during these days, and we used to enjoy some different indoor 遊び (あそび – games/pastime) at home. Of course we also used to play outside, but when you live in a snowy region like here in Hokkaido, you can often be trapped inside the house by heavy snow.

はなふだ – Hanafuda

The meaning of 花札 (はなふだ – hanafuda) is literally “flower cards”, and it’s a set of 48 flower cards. Possibly you might see the cards in a Japanese film, and some shady people like “yakuza” were playing wih these cards? Yes, the cards have been used for gambling. I’m not exactly sure how the cards are used in other areas, but at least here in Hokkaido 花札 (flower cards) are one of the games played especially during the New Year days. When I was a high school student, some students took these cards on a school trip, and our classroom teacher was so upset and said, “Do you know WHAT KIND OF PEOPLE play this game?!”. The teacher came from Tokyo, and it was really shocking for him to find students were playing with the cards. And that made us laugh, lol.

Apart from that, the card game is quite interesting. The cards have 12 sorts of 花 (はな – hana – flower), and each of the flowers has four cards. For example, there are four cards with pictures of 桜 (さくら – sakura – cherry blossoms), but each of the four cards has a different picture and is worth a different number of points in the game. The prettiest one is worth 20 points, the next one 5 points, and the remaining two cards have no points. But if you have lots of such “no points” cards by the end of the game, you might get big points.

Each of the 12 flowers (and trees) signifies a specific month. For example, 松 (まつ – matsu – pine tree) for January, 桜 (cherry blossoms) for March etc. Since they look colorful, playing with them is pleasant. The game has two or three 参加者 (さんかしゃ – sankasha – participants), depending on how it is played. Thus, if there are four people there and they have only one set of 花札 (flower cards), one person has to wait until one of the other three loses the game. When I was a child, my grandma always used to wait after me

I won’t give the ルール (rules) in detail, but the main idea is to gather pairs of the same suit (flower). The game with two people is more thrilling and interesting as a gambling game like poker, and the three person game is more peaceful.

かるた – Karuta

The word apparently comes from ポルトガル (porutogaru – Portugal) originally. If you’re familiar with Japanese history, you might know that some Western things were introduced from ポルトガル (Portugal) and オランダ (oranda – The Netherlands) some time ago. かるた means “card” originally, but this Japanese word reminds us of specific cards called いろはがるた (irohagaruta), which means “Japanese alphabet cards” or something like that. Some of you already know that the Japanese “alphabet” is “あいうえお (a i u e o)”, but before, it used to be “いろは (i ro ha)” instead.

Each of いろはがるた (cards for i ro ha) contains a 諺 (ことわざ – kotowaza – proverb). One proverb begins with the letter い, the next proverb with the letter ろ, and so on.

Well, apart from the set of the proverbs, there is another set of  cards which has the first letter of the proverbs and a drawing that corresponds to it. For example, the proverb which begins with the letter い is:

犬も歩けば棒に当たる。
いぬもあるけばぼうにあたる。
Inu mo arukeba bou ni ataru.

One card has only the sentence above, and another one which corresponds with it has only the letter い and the picture of a dog. The latter set of cards are put on the floor, and the 参加者 (participants) sit down around the cards. Only one person holds another set which has proverbs, and he or she reads the proverbs out loud. The 参加者 (participants) start to look for the card which matches the proverb among the cards on the floor as soon as they hear it, and the person who touches the card first can get it. After that, the next card is read, and the game continues until the floor is empty. The winner is the person who has the most cards, and sometimes you can also win a 賞品 (しょうひん – shouhin – prize) if the game is part of a bigger event.

Thus, the game is quite simple. But it needs speed, and sharp and exact action to get the proper card, and you should take care not to be injured, lol. Children often argue over a card, insisting “It’s mine!”, and even adults may do this if the winner gets a 賞品 (prize).

福笑い – ふくわらい – fukuwarai

This is a really simple game, and you don’t need to worry about quick reflexes or intelligence. On a big piece of paper which has a drawing of the outline of a face, you arrange some parts such as 目 (め – me – eye), 眉毛 (まゆげ – mayuge – eyebrow), 鼻 (はな – nose), 口 (くち – kuchi – mouth). You have to do it with a blindfold, so nobody knows how funny or terrible the face looks until it is completed. People around you may laugh a lot while looking at your “art”, and you may get some hints from the laughter.

“福 (ふく – fuku)” means “happiness”, and “笑い (わらい – warai) means “laugh/laughter”. We have a saying which means “laughter invites happiness” or something like that, so please laugh a lot so that happiness will visit you

Note

Recently some different かるた are sold at toy shops and book stores, and so on. For example, there are かるた depicting TV show or anime characters. In such かるた, each of the picture かるた has a character, and the other set has sentences which describe the characters instead of proverbs, as above. It sounds ridiculous for adults, but it is welcomed by little children, especially when they are great fans of the characters.

Author

This article was written by Shizu.

Edited by the StudyJapanese team