Japanese Counters

Counting items in Japanese can be a daunting task if you try to remember all of the counters.

After you learn your numbers, you will inevitably be confronted with the task of figuring out which counters are used with which obects or items.

For the most part you will only use a handful in everyday converstation and should not be overly concerned with all the counters. If you come across something and you make a mistake, someone will usually correct you or you can look up the correct counter when you have time.

When counting objects (or when in doubt) you should be able to get by with: -ko or -tsu

ikko,niko, sanko, yonko, goko, rokko, nanako, hachiko, kyuko, jukko

hitotsu, futatsu, mitsu, yotsu, itsutsu, mutsu, nanatsu, yatsu, kokonotsu, to

If you were at a restaurant and a waiter asked you how many bottles of beer you wanted and you replied,

with either niko… futatsu… or nihon, you’d get 2 bottles of beer.

Perhaps the most commonly used counters that you should learn are:

-mai ichimai, nimai, sanmai, yonmai, etc (counting flat objects such as paper or tickets)
-pon ippon, nihon, sanbon, yonhon, etc (counting cylindrical objects such as bottles of beer or pencils)
-kai ikkai, nikai, sankai,yonkai, etc (amount of times)
-piki ippiki, nihiki, sanbiki, yonhiki(counting animals except chickens and rabbits)
-satsu issatsu, nisatsu, sansatsu, yonsatsu, etc(counting books)
-hai ippan, nihai, sanbai, yonhai, etc (counting cupfuls)
-nin hitori, futari, sannin, yonnin, etc (counting people)
-dai ichidai, nidai, sandai, yondai, etc (counting cars)

There are over 20 counters and it can be both fascinating and frustrating to think about all of them. My advice is learn the basic counters that you need to communicate and the rest you can learn as time goes on.