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
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