Number Counters

Continuing from Numbers (Part I), I mentioned that numbers were not very useful without counters. Therefor, to show how these numbers are used, we are going to cover some more counters. Before, we had covered 円 (en) "Yen Counter" and 年 (nen) "Year Counter". These were easy because all we needed to do was put the counter after the number.

In this lesson, we'll be covering a very common counter for general use: こ (ko). It can be used with almost everything and I mean almost. Counting in Japanese is actually far more difficult than it may seem compared to English. This is probably also a point where many learners give up.

Counting things with こ (ko)

Here are the numbers using the こ (ko) counter. Notice that some of the numbers don't sound the same as usual. This is because it is using a different reading for the kanji being used. For this counter, you'll most commonly see the kanji 個 being used; this means "singular" (e.g: 8 singular things) referring to one type of thing that you are counting.

Items marked ! indicate that the pronunciation for the numbers have changed compared to the numbers we already know about from Numbers (Part I). This counter works the same above ten, for example: 11個 (jyuuikko), 12個 (jyuuniko) ... 16個 (jyuurokko), 17個 (jyuunanako) and so on.

Examples of こ (ko)

To connect こ to what you are talking about, use the の (no) particle. Also, while Kanji Numerals may be used (一, 二, 三), you'll find that the international number system (1, 2, 3) is more commonly used in modern writing; Just like how we no longer use Roman Numerals (I, II, III) in English except for stylistic writing or other reasons.

What are Counters?

Most languages have a concept of counters. In English, for example, instead of saying "Ten papers", you would say "Ten pieces of paper"; here "pieces" is the counter. This holds true in Japanese as well. If you are counting a long, cylindrical thing, you would use 1本 (ippon); if you are counting 10 thin, flat things, then you may use 10枚 (jyuumai).

What makes this more difficult in Japanese? Let's say we want to say "5 cats", in Japanese, that would be: 5匹の猫 (gohiki no neko). Notice the counter 匹 (hiki) to count small animals? The translation to English still remains "5 cats"; it is just indicating that the thing being counted (a cat) is a small animal.

Considering this, counters in Japanese are required to count different types of objects, animals or people; there are over 500 different counters to use. Maybe it's good to know there are only around 350 that are common, though that's still a lot. Also, the reading (sounds) of the number may change too when used with different counters. It's really at matter of memorising each one.

Not even native Japanese people know all the different counters, there are so many you may wonder what they use instead, if they don't know what to use?

The fail-safe counter to use in a situation when you simply don't know which one to use is to just go for 個 (ko) instead. This is why we covered that counter first in this lesson. As an example, most Japanese people will use 個 (ko) when counting tall mountains instead of 座 (za) since it isn't likely anyone is ever going really need to use it a lot and for that reason not be able to remember it.

Counting things with つ (tsu)

You'll probably still get by, by remembering up to 20 different kinds and I'd expect you'd look up the ones you don't know yourself, whenever you need to use them. Thankfully, there's only two counters that can be used to count almost everything: つ (tsu) when counting anything up to 10 and 個 (ko) with no limitations of how many things are being counted.

As you can see, the つ (tsu) counter has a different way of saying the numbers but you can only use them up to ten; anything after this, use the number by itself or use the 個 (ko) counter. If you know what thing is being counted then use the correct counter for it instead.

Additional Information

As mentioned before, the reason we are learning the 個 (ko) counter now is because it can be used to count almost everything. This helps to understand the language better and to be able to start making your own sentence that count objects much sooner without getting into anything too complicated.

個 (ko) can be used when you don't know what counter should be used and it simply means "singular" as in, something that represents one kind of thing (for example, when counting chairs where all the objects being counted are chairs). If you already know what type of object it is you are counting then it is more casual to use that specific counter instead.

Unfortunately, there are way too many counters to use and covering them all in a single short lesson would be impossible, even if we split it up into different lessons, there'd be way too many to cover. How so? Well, here is just a small list of some other counters you may come across:

This is just a short list of the many counters that can be used. You can probably see how difficult this will become. Not only will you be using a different counter but how you pronounce certain numbers, as seen already, will change too and you must memorise each irregular number; there's no way around it.