Grammar detail: counters for objects and other things

JLPT:

counters for objects and other things

My current mastery of this grammar:

For counting actual objects as opposed to just expressing a number, Japanese uses a unique system of 'counters', terms which are placed after the number and which partially describe the object being counted.

For example,

まい

枚

is the counter for flat objects such as sheets of paper, so to say 'five sheets of paper' in Japanese, you would say

かみごまい

紙五枚

which literally means 'paper 5 flat objects'.

While this seems unusual at first, and is often touted as a difficult feature of Japanese, we are actually doing exactly the same thing in English (five sheets of paper), but English is much less regular than Japanese.

Dates and times use counters in the same way - see dates and time for details.

Japanese has many counters, and the most common ones are:

枚	まい	flat objects such as paper or books
本	ほん	cylindrical or long objects such as bottles or chopsticks (note: this is a little confusing, since ほん means 'book' - it is not used to count books)
冊	さつ	books
人	じん	people
匹	ひき	small animals
回	かい	number of times something happens
分	ふん	minutes - see telling the time in Japanese
個	こ	small round objects
箇所／ヶ所	かしょ	places
羽	わ	birds
歳	さい	years old / age (note that '20 years old' is irregular: 二十歳 is not read にじゅっさい as you would expect, but instead はたち)
才\|	さい	years old (note: this is commonly used, but not technically correct: 歳 is the correct counter)
畳	じょう	tatami mats (the typical way to measure the area of a room)
台	だい	cars and machines
名	めい	people (polite alternative to 人, used by businesses and restaurants etc.)
語	ご	words
カ国語	かこくご	languages
か月	かげつ	months
軒	けん	buildings
通	つう	letters, telegrams etc
行	ぎょう	rows (in a document etc)
番	ばん	platforms (in a railway station etc)
階	かい	floors (in a building)
便	びん	(plane) flights
札	さつ	banknotes
脚	きゃく	chairs, tables, legs (of chairs and tables etc)
項	こう	items (in a checklist); paragraphs
泊	はく	nights (eg of a stay in a hotel)
世	せい	generations; monarchs (Elizabeth I etc)
頭	とう	large animals, cattle
巻	かん	volumes (eg books); reels (eg film)
部	ぶ	copies (eg of a publication)
切れ	きれ	pieces of sashimi (literally 'cuts')	ひときれ、ふたきれ、みきれ、よきれ、ごきれ、ろっきれ、ななきれ、はちきれ、きゅうきれ、じっきれ
着	ちゃく	suits of clothing
足	そく	pairs of shoes etc.
割	わり	tenths; lots of 10%
児	じ	children
粒	つぶ	pills, tablets etc

In Japanese, counters are known as

じょすうし

助数詞

More information / references

https://en.m.wikibooks.org/wiki/Japanese/Grammar/Counters ⇗
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_counter_word ⇗
https://www.tofugu.com/japanese/japanese-counters-list/ ⇗

Words used in this grammar

き

切

れ

noun

1. piece; slice; strip; scrap

2. cloth (also written as 布, 裂)

(click the word to view an additional 2 meanings, examples and links)

TEST