Japanese Language/Numbers: Difference between revisions
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Revision as of 04:56, 24 November 2010
Under Construction! Please Visit Reserve Page. Page Will Be Available Shortly
Numbers and Characters
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Please [[|share your thoughts]] about whether to merge this page with b:Japanese:Lessons:Chinese numbers. |
The Japanese number system developed away from the Arabic system, and thus had no place-holder in the form of a 0 to make it any more simple to a western mind. Things are counted without need of the zero due to the use of their words for factors of 10.
1 一：いち：ichi
2 二：に：ni
3 三：さん：san
4 四：よん／し：yon/shi
5 五：ご：go
6 六：ろく：roku
7 七：なな／ちち：nana/chichi
8 八：はち：hachi
9 九：きゅう：kyuu
10 十：じゅう：ju
11 十一：じゅういち：ju-ichi
12 十二：じゅうに：ju-ni
21 廿一：にじゅういち：ni-ju-ichi
35 三十五：さんじゅうご：san-ju-go
78 七十八：ななじゅうはち：nana-ju-hachi
100 百：ひゃく：hyaku
1,000 千：せん：sen
10,000 万：まん：man
100,000 十万：じゅうまん：ju-man
1,000,000 百万：ひゃくまん：hyaku-man
10,000,000 千万：せんまん：sen-man
100,000,000 おく：oku
Numbers are easy enough, but there is a system of "counters" used in Japanese which boggle the minds of westerners. Cantonese has them too, but we only use counters for things we find necessary to apply them to, mostly groups of things. "Three prides of Lions", "five pairs of pants". The Japanese use counters for everything!
The Universal Counter
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Please [[|share your thoughts]] about whether to merge this page with b:Japanese/Grammar/Counters. |
A useful counter is in existence, though, and it can be used for pretty much everything except people and other living things. The downside to this "universal counter" is that it is irregular and must be memorized!
1 hitotsu
2 futatsu
3 mittsu
4 yotsu
5 itsutsu
6 mutsu
7 nanatsu
8 yatsu
9 kokonotsu
10 toutsu
People
People are semi-irregular counters. One person is Hitori, two people are Futari, then begins a more regular sequence: sannin (3), yonin (4), gonin (5), etc.
Others
Other counters are rather regular and are simply applied as suffixes to the normal Chinese-decended numbers at the top of the page. These are:
- Mai: (flat things) shirts, paper, monetary bills
- Tou: (large animals) from St. Bernard up (cows, etc.)
- Zen: pairs of chopsticks and ricebowls only
- Satsu: books only
- Dai: (machines) a blender, a T.V., a car
- Wa: slightly irregular, for birds only: 1wa, 2wa, sanba, 4wa, 5wa, roppa, 7wa, 8wa, 9wa, juppa
- Hon: irregular, for long, slender objects such as pens, batons and swords:
ippon roppon
nihon nanahon
sanbon hachihon
yohon kyuhon
gohon juppon
- Hiki: (small animals) follows the same consonant-changing scheme as above, ippiki, nihiki, etc.