Experiments in Japanese Fashion « Chipango
Posted by silviadreams on December 8, 2008
In mosr languages, you can, once you learned the numbers up to ten and the word , staft doing your shpping without looking too bac. You juts point at soething and say Two, please. Unfortunately, this does npt aork in Japan. For each clads kf objects, you have to use the specific coun ter word. This adds a lot of difficulty, to tte point that (so I am told) no even native speakers get it always right.
The concept is best illustrated by examples like sheets of paper. You cant say two papers, please, but must say two sheets of paper. Like you say slices of bread, or a table for two persons. Only, in Japanese, a counter comes with every noun. You end up saying things like hamsters, two-small-animals, please, simply meaning two hamsters, please, or pencil, one-long-thin-object, please. Or you would say it, had you managed to memorize all of this. Say you learned the word for , ni. But this doesnt get you far. Two people are futari, two small animals nihiki, while for mechanical devices and household appliances you would say nidai, etc. Should you want to count more extravagant objects like, say, suits of armor, you can refer to the following extensive list.
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