Common Counters By Category
This is a selective list of some of the more commonly used counting words.
| Pronunciation | Japanese | Use |
|---|---|---|
| People and Things | ||
| ぶ bu | 部 | Copies of a magazine or newspaper, or other packets of papers |
| だい dai | 台 | Cars, bicycles, machines, mechanical devices, household appliances |
| はい hai, ぱい pai, ばい bai | 杯 | Cups and glasses of drink, spoonfuls, cuttlefish, octopuses, crabs, squid, abalone, boats (slang) |
| ひき hiki, ぴき piki, びき biki | 匹 | Small animals, insects, fish, reptiles, amphibians, oni (demons/ogres) |
| ほん hon, ぽん pon, ぼん bon | 本 | Long, thin objects: rivers, roads, train tracks, ties, pencils, bottles, guitars; also, metaphorically, telephone calls, train or bus routes, movies (see also: tsūwa), points or bounds in sports events. Although 本 also means "book", the counter for books is satsu. |
| かい kai, がい gai | 階 | Number of floors, stories |
| こ ko | 個, 箇, 个, or ヶ | General measure word, used when there is no specific counter. 個 is also used for military units. |
| まい mai | 枚 | Thin, flat objects: sheets of paper, photographs, plates, articles of clothing (see also: chaku) |
| めい mei | 名 | People (polite) (名 means "name") |
| めん men | 面 | Mirrors, boards for board games (chess, igo, shogi), stages of computer games, walls of a room, tennis courts |
| にん nin | 人 | People (but see table of exceptions below) |
| り ri | り or 人 | People, used in the words 一人 (ひとり) and 二人 (ふたり) |
| さつ satsu | 冊 | Books |
| つ tsu | つ | General-purpose counter, used as part of the indigenous Japanese numbers 一つ ("one thing"), 二つ ("two things"), 三つ ("three things"), etc. |
| わ wa | 話 | Stories, episodes of TV series, etc. |
| Time, Calendar, etc. | ||
| びょう byō | 秒 | Seconds |
| ふん fun, ぷん pun | 分 | Minutes |
| がつ gatsu, also つき tsuki | 月 | Months of the year. Month-long periods when read tsuki (see also: kagetsu) |
| はく haku, ぱく paku | 泊 | Nights of a stay |
| じ ji | 時 | Hours of the day |
| じかん jikan | 時間 | Hour-long periods |
| か ka | 日 | Day of the month |
| かげつ kagetsu | ヶ月, 箇月 | Month-long periods (see also: gatsu). 箇 is normally abbreviated using a small katakana ヶ in modern Japanese. Alternatively 個, hiragana か, small katakana ヵ and full-size katakana カ & ケ can also be seen, although only か is similarly frequent. |
| ねん nen | 年 | Years, school years (grades); not years of age |
| にち nichi | 日 | Days of the month (but see table of exceptions below) |
| さい sai | 歳 (or 才) | Years of age (才 is used informally as a shorthand) |
| しゅう shū | 週 | Weeks |
| Extent, Frequency, etc. | ||
| ばい bai | 倍 | Multiples, -fold as in "twofold" |
| ばん ban | 番 | Position, turn, sports matches |
| ど do, also たび tabi | 度 | Occurrences, number of times, degrees of temperature or angle (see also: kai). |
| じょう jō | 畳 | Tatami mats. The kanji 畳 is also read tatami and is the same one used for the mats. The room size of a washitsu in Japan is given as a number of mats, for example 4½ jō |
| かい kai | 回 | Occurrences, number of times (see also: do) |
Read more about this topic: Japanese Counter Word
Famous quotes containing the words common and/or category:
“Uniform ideas originating among entire peoples unknown to each other must have a common ground of truth.”
—Giambattista Vico (1688–1744)
“I see no reason for calling my work poetry except that there is no other category in which to put it.”
—Marianne Moore (1887–1972)