Daily lessons · Day 18 of 90
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Counting people, things and nights
Use the right counter
Japanese counts different shapes with different words, and there is no way round it. The good news is that you only need five or six counters to get through daily life, plus one general-purpose set that works when you cannot remember the right one. That fallback is the most valuable thing in today's lesson.
The general counter
When you do not know the right counter, use these. Nobody will mind:
Notice that the counter goes after the object and its particle, not before it like English two coffees. コーヒーを ふたつ is literally coffee, two of them. That word order feels wrong at first and is completely standard, and it is the same shape you used in the café yesterday.
Counting people
The first two are irregular and simply have to be learned:
ひとり and ふたり come from the same old counting system as ひとつ and ふたつ, which is why they look related. From three onwards Japanese switches to the Chinese-derived numbers plus にん. That mixture of two counting systems is the reason counters feel messy, and knowing it is a historical accident rather than a rule makes it less annoying.
The counters worth knowing
Four more that cover most of what you will buy or book:
ほん changes shape depending on the number in front of it: いっぽん, にほん, さんぼん. This is rendaku, a sound change that happens all over Japanese when words combine, and it is why 三百 is さんびゃく rather than さんひゃく. You do not need to predict it. You do need to expect it, so that さんぼん does not sound like a word you have never met.
Carry over, from earlier days
Check yourself
8 questions. Nothing is saved unless you finish.