〜枚{ まい | mai }: Flat things Ex) paper, t-shirts, cards 〜台{ だい | dai }: Machines, cars, large instruments, platforms to stand Ex) beds, tables, trucks, bicycles 〜冊{ さつ | satsu }: Books Ex) books, albums, magazines 〜本{ ほん | hon }: stick-shaped or long items Ex) pen, bottles, cans 〜杯{ はい | hai }: Liquids in cups or bowls Ex) bowl of rice, ramen, glass of beer, cup of coffee 〜人{ にん | nin }: Person 〜匹{ ひき | hiki }: Small or medium-sized animals Ex) dogs, cats, monkeys, fish 〜個 { こ | ko }: Anything that has a clear boundary Ex) tangerines, bread, glasses, bruises
@@inappropriateuser5581I would say Japanese counters are even harder because they change their form very often depending on the number your counting, they're very irregular. As far as I'm concerned this doesn't happen in Mandarin.
@@NihongoDekita just forget about it then. Natives rarely use any of the counters anyway.つ and 個 is used for 99% of things in reality, the counters are only used in textbooks. I have heard japanese people use ikko for one car instead of ichi dai.
@@sebastian-ny1spyeah, very often natives themselves will forget or ignore grammar rules. It's hard for a student to know which rules are ok-ish to bend/ignore vs which rules would make you sound ridiculous or illiterate 😅😢
Ah, noun counters. I remember this from Mandarin, glad to see it back. I'm translating my classmate's joke into Japanese: if an animal gets run over by a road roller, do you use 一匹 or 一枚?
You can think of satsu: 冊 as a counter meaning "volume". As in "i am holding three volumes of a book" Mai: 枚 is comparable to sheets: three sheets of paper Dai: 台 is devices (computer, tv, computer monitor, etc) "i have three computer devices" Hon: 本 means a cylindrical object, so why does the kanji usually mean book? Because the original japanese books were SCROLLS! 📜
That's the most helpful information on this subject that I have encountered so far. Thank you. It brings to mind collective nouns in English... a flock of birds, a herd of cows, a pack of dogs, a group of people, a stack of boxes, a pile of rocks etc
@@braveshine2579 interesting! Do you think it could be perhaps related to the fact that devices used to always be mounted on a stand, and the grammar stuck while devices shrank
To Japanese learners suffering from this, you can substitute "つ" or "個" for many counters. Although it's not sometimes the right way of counting, Japanese people including me often use them. For example, the counter for books is 冊, but there's no problem using つ or 個 instead in coversations as long as they are used to count objects and unless you use them to count people and animals.
@@harshitchandra_07 Well, actually it has to be 1冊（いっさつ）, but 本を1つ買った and 本を1個買った(I bought two books) sound ok in casual conversations. Objects ultimately can be counted with つ or 個 from my personal experience (I think つ is more common). Note that つ can't be used to count more than 10 (You can't say 10つ, 11つ...). Counters are really difficult concept. Even when describing similar objects, they can change. In fact, when I order a bowl of miso ramen, I say "みそラーメン1つお願いします" rather than "みそラーメン1杯お願いします" because I recognize the ramen as a bowl of ramen when I order it and a bowl can be counted with つ or 個, whereas I say "もう1杯もらえますか？(Can I get another 杯?＝Can I get a refill?) when I want a refill because what I really need is ramen contents (soup and noodles), excluding the bowl.
@@Nsquare_01 1つ、2つ、3つ、4つ、5つ、6つ、7つ、8つ、9つ(hitotsu, futatsu, mittsu, yottsu, itsutsu, muttsu, nanatsu, yattsu, kokonotsu). This is the remnant of ancient Japan's way of counting (hi, fu, mi, yo, itsu, mu, nana, ya, kono, to). In general, we don't use 5つ to 9つ that much in coversations than 5個 to 9個 because they are kind of hard to pronounce while 1つ to 4つ are often used.
Japanese onomatopoeias take that place in my heart about the language... so freaking confusing on which context to use then and heavily used in casual conversations
I'm 82 days into learning Japanese with Pimsleur and Rosetta Stone, and I just love how helpful your videos are. Thank you so much for making funny too 😂
yeah there are so many of these. the ones that i can think of are: 个 - large objects, people, last resort if you can’t remember the counter 粒 - smaller than about an egg 只 - small fat objects, animals 条 - long objects 本 - books 张 - paper, some furniture 台 - large electrical appliances 瓶 - bottle 罐 - can 杯 - cup 双 - pair 份 - portion 次 - time (as in “bought three times”) 片 - squareish flat objects, slice 支 - cylindrical objects, writing tools 盒 - box 束 - bouquet of flowers 节 - classes 幢 - building 所 - non-profit building, aka school, service building 家 - business 碗 - bowl 盘 - plate 套 - set 副 - also a pair, but used differently 种 - types, languages and the list goes on and on
As someone who learned Chinese growing up, it’s really interesting seeing how Japanese actually uses different quantifiers from Chinese. In Chinese, books are indeed quantified by 本 (which can mean booklet too).
This one small video just disintegrated my big dream of learning japanese someday, just rendered out of this reality completely... Thx for saving my time though! 🙏
Yes, that's difficult. As a student of Japanese, I struggled a lot. As if they were not enough then came the second batch--the "wear or put on (something) words". I got seizures.
My Japanese friend told me just make sure I know ~人 and ~つ and even though it may be technically wrong everyone will know what I’m saying. Don’t get so stuck on learning counters that you give up or don’t learn the rest of the language. Complex counters will come more naturally later
Hungarian has kind of this too: 1 darab 1 lapnyi 1 szeletnyi 1 fürtnyi 1 csíknyi 1 edénnyi 1 pohárnyi and so on. I never thought of it so there is probably more that I don’t recall rn. But yeah similar concept as far as I see.
@@zingiberae yeah of course you can drink it any way you like as it’s subjective, but as a former bartender 9/10 times people will complain if you pour it like that, including myself because I prefer liquid with my foam
When I first started learning these about 14 years ago, I basically told myself that I'd probably never get counting perfectly right (there are simply too many rules, and so many of them are entirely arbitrary), and I made peace with that fact.
omg yea😭 it was so hard to grasp at first and tbh im still learning counter suffixes as in like trying to remember all of them, but it gets easier with practice! once you write/speak a lot you kinda get used to it ☺️
Hello🙂Sayaka.. So🍊tangerine is?!?… 😂🤣😂💞😂🤣😂 My head is😵💫spinning from confusion, but this is funny.. so ridiculously funny!! I love your humor, Sayaka!! 🇺🇸😂💚💚💚😂🇯🇵
@@mxlody_xngel9401what do you mean? It's literally the same idea. Please don't confuse people. The only difference is Japanese has different way of speaking. However the writing is very similar because.... Japanese uses Chinese characters!!! Which means they took the general rules from China!
@@bunnyrabi ur wrong...? Japanese has kanji and another form of writing, which uses some similar characters to chinese, but most r different...ik this bc im literally chinese?
@@mxlody_xngel9401 apparently being Chinese doesn't mean you know everything about the history of your own language. Thus why Chinese teachers never advise to ask those that didn't major in Chinese about chinese language questions... I'm kind of shocked though as a Chinese person you did not know know Kanji is Chinese... Anyway, the fact that you even argued after watching the video makes me question if you can even read Chinese characters...
@@bunnyrabi i didnt mean that kanji isnt chinese, majority is. However there are many differences as to simplified chinese vs. traditionsl chinese. Kanji uses both, while also making changes to tbe character. So, yes, kanji is "chinese" in a sense, however its def not the same. I wouldnt be able to read evetything in kanji, as i only know simplified chinese characters.
Ok can you explain why *'Banana'* and *'beer'* have the same counter *'ippon'* ? One is a fruit and the other is a beverage! It makes the least sense I mean shouldn't *'banana'* also be counted as *'Ikko'* same as for *'tangerine'* ?! 🤷 Edit: Ah I didn't the pinned comment😅! It explains that it's based on the outer shape of the objects. But the *'ikko'* one is still pretty vague. Still confusing as hell😓!
@@sergiom3988 Basically, yes. 本 (hon or ほん in hiragana) is used to count long objects. This can be things like pens and pencils, but also neckties, trees, bottles, belts, flutes, etc.
@@danielantony1882Props for using 廿, but how on earth did you type the archaic 四? There is also the distinction between the 3(!) was to say 1 day. ついたち is used for the fist day of the month, いちにち would be the general way of saying 1 day, and いちじつ for literary and poetic use.
@@hirigoneI see. I just saw ついたち more, so that's why I used it. As for the archaic Kanji, I actually just found them on the internet, where archaic Chinese Hanzi are collected, and put them in my IME, both PC and Gboard on mobile. I just thought that 4 is a no-brainer, so I used it, then there's other cooler stuff, which I don't use as much. 十 - じゅう - 10 廿 - にゅう - 20 卅 - そう - 30 卌 - しゅう - 40 百 - ひゃく - 100 皕 - ひょく - 200 𤾩 - とん･とう - 300 Would be nice if we revived and reused them in colloquial or some other contexts.
English has these as well, they are just less common. Like "a *pair* of shoes", or "a *sheet* of paper". Think of them like units to accompany the number.
Counters (also known as measure words) aren't strange at all: they're used all the time when counting mass nouns in languages (even in English). Japanese (like many east asian languages) considers all nouns as mass nouns, so of course it's going to have a billion measure words. They're the same as saying "a bottle of water" or "a sheet of paper". You are adding a word that makes sense to count to a mass noun, which cannot be reasonably counted (again, like water)
@@MisterJimLee that's what happens when words are used near eachother continuously: the word boundaries start to change and one affixes onto the other. And then sound change messes everything up
For those of you who didn’t catch it, Japanese counters are based on the shape of the object being counted. It can be really confusing when you start out but it does start to make sense with a little bit of practice and exposure.
Yeah that is not really the same. Try one tablespoon of butter, one bowl of butter, one pat of butter. I don't even understand the concept of counters truthfully as they seem wildly unnecessary and confusing, but I am pretty sure what is being expressed in this video is different that units of measure or other nouns attached to quantities in English.
The only thing I can think of for english that's kind of similar and was confusing at first is: A vs An. It's a purely grammatical concept that doesn't translate to other language
Sure, but we can also just say "one ____" in English and nobody is gonna pedantically correct you for not using the specific counter. That's the difference
That “I can’t” is so real 😂😂 I did JLPT N5 in two months and passed the exam but went to exam ignoring those counting😂😂 I tried and gave up It’s too messed up but when you keep hearing them you just get used to the ones in day to day life
If so I will do Japanese When more coming the time I should acquisite. Thank you❤ Sensei, I appreciate all the proper examples[ex(?)] helping comprehension.
Actually, am i the only one who finds this really amusing? Im currently learning Japanese, and videos like these actually give me even more motivation to learn and understand it! The fact that there are a number of ways to count something, that kanji can merge and created merged meanings(my favourite example of that is "Ani" + "Ottoto" = "kyodai"). All these things that are usually absent in other languages makes learning japanese feel like a really fun rpg, where i unlock each new word or meaning and it all suddenly makes sence! What a wonderful language ❤🇯🇵🎉
Hillarious video =))), thanks! BTW, every language has its complications. I remember how English drove me crazy with all its tenses(after just 3 ones in my native Russian) and with such an alien(for me) concept as articles. Good luck also with memorizing all 9000000 possible endings of Russian words, with verbs of motion or with the fact that ear has a neutral gender, strawberry has a feminine one and nose is masculine ))
This is the first time I’ve seen a video like this that wasn’t about how terrible English is! Haha I’m about 2 months into learning Japanese, so I’m looking forward to the challenge 😅
Lol the last time I was learning Japanese this stressed me out so much I canceled my lessons with my tutor. I am now back to this same section in my textbook, I have decided that I am just not going to be perfect in this area, but I'm probably always going to sound like I have broken Japanese but at the very least I'll be understood 😂
I feel you. It's similar in Chinese. A pencil is 一支铅笔 (yī zhī qiān bǐ), which is roughly a stick of pencil? The way I explain it is a bit like how in English, you say "a stick of dynamite" rather than "a dynamite." That's usually enough to get them to accept that you have to use "unit descriptors" in the number. Now, when to use which one, sadly, there's no solution. The best part, I'm pretty sure whether something is a stick of or a round of or whatever is not consistent across Japanese, Chinese, etc. And then there are the different "versions" of similar things. Like flat things. And there also, there are different "versions" of flat. There is 一张 (yī zhāng) which is a bit like "a sheet" for really flat things like paper or leaves, but 一片 (yī piàn) for slightly thicker flat things like a slice of bread. But neither apply to plates. It's a bit like how in many European languages (except English), you have grammatical genders for words but they're not consistent across languages either. Like how "key" is feminine in French, but masculine in German. Go figure. XD
Japanese makes me want to cry sometimes. I'm starting lessons again today after a five year break, and this has me wanting to cry before the lessons even start
It drove me so crazy when I started learning Japanese, but now I'm fine with it. There are like thousands like this but nowadays you only gave 20 or so
As a Korean who learned Japanese for 2 years in high school it was horrifying that counting word don’t match up and the boundaries and concepts of what is what was so different. 😂🤷♂️
Honestly, counters are one of the last things I started learning in Japanese before my lessons ended and honestly I was glad because even then I remember it seeming unnecessarily complicated 😂
![ARGENTINA vs. PERÚ [1-0] | RESUMEN | ELIMINATORIAS SUDAMERICANAS | FECHA 12](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/xtI25ENDDSY/mqdefault.jpg)
〜枚{ まい | mai }:
Flat things
Ex) paper, t-shirts, cards
〜台{ だい | dai }:
Machines, cars, large instruments, platforms to stand
Ex) beds, tables, trucks, bicycles
〜冊{ さつ | satsu }:
Books
Ex) books, albums, magazines
〜本{ ほん | hon }:
stick-shaped or long items
Ex) pen, bottles, cans
〜杯{ はい | hai }:
Liquids in cups or bowls
Ex) bowl of rice, ramen, glass of beer, cup of coffee
〜人{ にん | nin }:
Person
〜匹{ ひき | hiki }:
Small or medium-sized animals
Ex) dogs, cats, monkeys, fish
〜個 { こ | ko }:
Anything that has a clear boundary
Ex) tangerines, bread, glasses, bruises
And then there's 〜名 { めい | mei } which is also for people but only used for reservations and such
Bruises don't have boundaries 😂
ah yes
rice, my favorite liquid
Why then one person is 一人 (ひとり) and not いちにん?
I thought ko was for round things?
Even as a Japanese when i was younger i was so confused at this and i begged my mum to teach me bc it was so confusing-
aw. sweet. what happens after that? She gave up or you gave up? Just curious as well as kidding.
@@braveshine2579 oops sorry late reply!! She just gave up afterwards "ur so hard to teach😭😭" HAHAHA
So how did you learn??? I’m so confused
@@FransceneJK98 legend is that Chuuya has still not learned till this day
tbh this sounds as a pretty dumb language concept. Why you even need a specific thing to count something of different shapes? Just count it lmao
When a language just wants to mess with you. 😂
I can confirm bc Chinese and Japanese counter are similar
Its like greeting cheese. You know its not melted but you're still dreaming of it!
@@inappropriateuser5581I would say Japanese counters are even harder because they change their form very often depending on the number your counting, they're very irregular. As far as I'm concerned this doesn't happen in Mandarin.
@@vio3366 tru
@@inappropriateuser5581 No, we make SENSE. We troll but not this badly
I have been learning Japanese for 2yrs now and I think my brain just lost all the knowledge it had learned
I felt that “I can’t” 😂
Like you want to scream "MURI, MURI, MURI" really loud?
@@Kainync Or むずかしい muzukashii!
Well that’s fun 😂 a whole new way of thinking about numbers
Ngl as a Japanese now I realize how confusing this maybe to foreigners 😂
Just use finger, FINGER 😂 Haiyaaaa 😂😂😂 jokes aside though, could 😅 simply name the thing and show the number if smaller than 5 ? 😂😂
So how do you remember all that? Is there a mnemonic way or do you just remember it like that?
I quit learning for 5 years after i learned about counting. Im back at it again years later and it still makes me want to cry.
You got this!
@@NihongoDekita just forget about it then. Natives rarely use any of the counters anyway.つ and 個 is used for 99% of things in reality, the counters are only used in textbooks. I have heard japanese people use ikko for one car instead of ichi dai.
"hitoshizuku"
@@sebastian-ny1spyeah, very often natives themselves will forget or ignore grammar rules. It's hard for a student to know which rules are ok-ish to bend/ignore vs which rules would make you sound ridiculous or illiterate 😅😢
This was the point when I stopped enjoying studying Japanese… she is doing great!
Ah, noun counters. I remember this from Mandarin, glad to see it back.
I'm translating my classmate's joke into Japanese: if an animal gets run over by a road roller, do you use 一匹 or 一枚?
Depends on the animal
Never heard a steam roller called a road roller before. Where are you from?
@@efisgpr i just had JoJo's bizarre adventure on my mind when I said it
"it's a counter for flat things" I guess I am included
flat supremacy
Not that flat
Ichi mai oppai!
Damn i started laughing so hard
Relatable...
I started studying Japanese. My class has a “don’t give up!” channel on discord and now I can see why
this seems harder than pitch accent lol
It’s not that hard, there’s only a few hundred counters. It might only take you a few years to learn the important ones
@@8__vv__8ah OK thanks!
I've got this nailed but pitch accent is still killing me after 5 years.
I ask my Japanese colleagues to correct my pitch all the time. 🙃
@@izumirukihave u tried migaku’s pitch accent trainer?
@@8__vv__8a few hundred? I thought maybe like a hundred at most. I’m just gonna use the generic つ or 個 counter for everything. It’s so pointless.
You can think of satsu: 冊 as a counter meaning "volume". As in "i am holding three volumes of a book"
Mai: 枚 is comparable to sheets: three sheets of paper
Dai: 台 is devices (computer, tv, computer monitor, etc) "i have three computer devices"
Hon: 本 means a cylindrical object, so why does the kanji usually mean book? Because the original japanese books were SCROLLS! 📜
That's the most helpful information on this subject that I have encountered so far. Thank you.
It brings to mind collective nouns in English... a flock of birds, a herd of cows, a pack of dogs, a group of people, a stack of boxes, a pile of rocks etc
@@GrahamMilkdrop thank you! I'm glad it helps.
I completely agree with your comparison to collective nouns. Both are terrible to try and learn! 😂😂
THANK YOU FOR MAKING THIS MAKE SENSE!!
dai also used for podium on stage when speaker speaks. maybe like big rectangler box like used to be computers are.
@@braveshine2579 interesting! Do you think it could be perhaps related to the fact that devices used to always be mounted on a stand, and the grammar stuck while devices shrank
To Japanese learners suffering from this, you can substitute "つ" or "個" for many counters. Although it's not sometimes the right way of counting, Japanese people including me often use them. For example, the counter for books is 冊, but there's no problem using つ or 個 instead in coversations as long as they are used to count objects and unless you use them to count people and animals.
You mean I can say '本が一つお願いします' and it's okay?
@@harshitchandra_07
Well, actually it has to be 1冊（いっさつ）, but 本を1つ買った and 本を1個買った(I bought two books) sound ok in casual conversations. Objects ultimately can be counted with つ or 個 from my personal experience (I think つ is more common). Note that つ can't be used to count more than 10 (You can't say 10つ, 11つ...).
Counters are really difficult concept. Even when describing similar objects, they can change. In fact, when I order a bowl of miso ramen, I say "みそラーメン1つお願いします" rather than "みそラーメン1杯お願いします" because I recognize the ramen as a bowl of ramen when I order it and a bowl can be counted with つ or 個, whereas I say "もう1杯もらえますか？(Can I get another 杯?＝Can I get a refill?) when I want a refill because what I really need is ramen contents (soup and noodles), excluding the bowl.
Yes, -tsu is a lifesaver :-D
Like, itsu?
@@Nsquare_01
1つ、2つ、3つ、4つ、5つ、6つ、7つ、8つ、9つ(hitotsu, futatsu, mittsu, yottsu, itsutsu, muttsu, nanatsu, yattsu, kokonotsu).
This is the remnant of ancient Japan's way of counting (hi, fu, mi, yo, itsu, mu, nana, ya, kono, to).
In general, we don't use 5つ to 9つ that much in coversations than 5個 to 9個 because they are kind of hard to pronounce while 1つ to 4つ are often used.
Me a Japanese being asked to explain why and how this works: I can't 😭
Even that meme with sitting/standing/laying things on table in russian is easier)))
一本でも人参という歌をうたってとぼけて下さい😁
I am currently learning these and for me its the hardest part of japanese 💀
More than 2 kanji words?
More than memorising words like 自転車？
Im also learning Japanese and Kanji is the hardest for me 😭👍
Japanese onomatopoeias take that place in my heart about the language... so freaking confusing on which context to use then and heavily used in casual conversations
More than kanji?
I'm 82 days into learning Japanese with Pimsleur and Rosetta Stone, and I just love how helpful your videos are. Thank you so much for making funny too 😂
As someone who is trying to learn japanese for 2 years I can grantee that I too felt that "I can't"
Same here! Been "studying" Japanese for almost 2 years and... Some aspects are utterly confusing.
@@sergiom3988 Yeah same
I feel the same pain in chinese, but we'll get through it! We have measure words for everything just like Japanese
A murder of crows
A pride of lions
A school of fish
A parliament of owls
A pack of wolves
A herd of goats
Ok though it's confusing , this kinda makes me wanna learn the language more !
Yesss!!
Agree with you 😂 Let's Study more
Counter words haven't scared me away yet!
🤣 @@NihongoDekita
Masochist.. lol
Fascinating! Thank you for sharing this with us! 😀
yeah there are so many of these. the ones that i can think of are:
个 - large objects, people, last resort if you can’t remember the counter
粒 - smaller than about an egg
只 - small fat objects, animals
条 - long objects
本 - books
张 - paper, some furniture
台 - large electrical appliances
瓶 - bottle
罐 - can
杯 - cup
双 - pair
份 - portion
次 - time (as in “bought three times”)
片 - squareish flat objects, slice
支 - cylindrical objects, writing tools
盒 - box
束 - bouquet of flowers
节 - classes
幢 - building
所 - non-profit building, aka school, service building
家 - business
碗 - bowl
盘 - plate
套 - set
副 - also a pair, but used differently
种 - types, languages
and the list goes on and on
That looks so much like chinese it's crazy 🤯
@@Namara222this is chinese
Actually I find this kind of fun to learn :)
And perhaps it makes things easier then you already know these counters.
@@Namara222that is chinese. As someone who is chinese, im so thankful for it, makes learning kanji so easy LMAO.
@@joy-6629 same here! but now we have to remember two pronunciations for the same character 😭
As someone who learned Chinese growing up, it’s really interesting seeing how Japanese actually uses different quantifiers from Chinese.
In Chinese, books are indeed quantified by 本 (which can mean booklet too).
Sayaka you're absolutely the best and most creative teacher ever, you seem like a world citizen and not just Japanese 😊
I love watching your videos
The editing on this is 🏆🙌
THANK YOU! These are my exact thoughts while learning japanese!
chinese is also so unnecessarily difficult like this. you have a counter word for chopsticks and stuff
ye measure words go crazy
This one small video just disintegrated my big dream of learning japanese someday, just rendered out of this reality completely...
Thx for saving my time though! 🙏
Yes, that's difficult. As a student of Japanese, I struggled a lot. As if they were not enough then came the second batch--the "wear or put on (something) words". I got seizures.
Yeah… those ones…
I love your endings! keep up the good work 🥰
My Japanese friend told me just make sure I know ~人 and ~つ and even though it may be technically wrong everyone will know what I’m saying.
Don’t get so stuck on learning counters that you give up or don’t learn the rest of the language. Complex counters will come more naturally later
I agree the generic ones are best to remember, and then the ones you’ll use often like beer.
Hungarian has kind of this too:
1 darab
1 lapnyi
1 szeletnyi
1 fürtnyi
1 csíknyi
1 edénnyi
1 pohárnyi
and so on. I never thought of it so there is probably more that I don’t recall rn. But yeah similar concept as far as I see.
You're such a pleasure to watch lol
Don’t forget: a group of crows is called “murder”. This is kind of like English version of counters
Honestly, her frustration is entirely justified.
I love your content thanks for this
That beer pour was so illegal 🤣
😂😂
There is nothing wrong with pouring beer like that. If anything it is better
@@zingiberae yeah of course you can drink it any way you like as it’s subjective, but as a former bartender 9/10 times people will complain if you pour it like that, including myself because I prefer liquid with my foam
@@zingiberaethat wasn't a beer pour, it was a foam pour
@@Yukimationyeah it made me gag
Thanks for the lesson ,you guys are 🤣 funny!!
I’m so glad I have a Chinese and Malay base😩 It’s kinda the same thing just different pronounciation
教えてくれてありがとうございます!
When I first started learning these about 14 years ago, I basically told myself that I'd probably never get counting perfectly right (there are simply too many rules, and so many of them are entirely arbitrary), and I made peace with that fact.
omg yea😭 it was so hard to grasp at first and tbh im still learning counter suffixes as in like trying to remember all of them, but it gets easier with practice! once you write/speak a lot you kinda get used to it ☺️
And i was thinking i knew japanese 💀
Haha I really enjoyed this watching you Sensei keep on going to make video 😅
Wa 羽 means "feather" and is a counter for birds or rabbits. Which is hilarious, because it's like the ears make you think of bird wings.
Imagine a collab with the French guy and the whole skit is just an argument about which language is more confusing 😂
Hello🙂Sayaka..
So🍊tangerine is?!?…
😂🤣😂💞😂🤣😂
My head is😵💫spinning from confusion, but this is funny.. so ridiculously funny!!
I love your humor, Sayaka!!
🇺🇸😂💚💚💚😂🇯🇵
My man is still at it a year later. Dedication to the rizz.
@inyourfacedragrace
Si, Sayaka es muy divertida y también una buena profesora
😅✍️🎓
shes amazing.. and shes so good at teaching
As someone who studied Chinese first, this totally makes sense.
@@mxlody_xngel9401what do you mean? It's literally the same idea. Please don't confuse people. The only difference is Japanese has different way of speaking. However the writing is very similar because.... Japanese uses Chinese characters!!! Which means they took the general rules from China!
@@bunnyrabi ur wrong...? Japanese has kanji and another form of writing, which uses some similar characters to chinese, but most r different...ik this bc im literally chinese?
@@mxlody_xngel9401Kanji means Chinese characters, friend.
@@mxlody_xngel9401 apparently being Chinese doesn't mean you know everything about the history of your own language. Thus why Chinese teachers never advise to ask those that didn't major in Chinese about chinese language questions... I'm kind of shocked though as a Chinese person you did not know know Kanji is Chinese... Anyway, the fact that you even argued after watching the video makes me question if you can even read Chinese characters...
@@bunnyrabi i didnt mean that kanji isnt chinese, majority is. However there are many differences as to simplified chinese vs. traditionsl chinese. Kanji uses both, while also making changes to tbe character. So, yes, kanji is "chinese" in a sense, however its def not the same. I wouldnt be able to read evetything in kanji, as i only know simplified chinese characters.
Sayaka always gets me entertained and ready to learn
Ok can you explain why *'Banana'* and *'beer'* have the same counter *'ippon'* ?
One is a fruit and the other is a beverage! It makes the least sense I mean shouldn't *'banana'* also be counted as *'Ikko'* same as for *'tangerine'* ?! 🤷
Edit: Ah I didn't the pinned comment😅! It explains that it's based on the outer shape of the objects.
But the *'ikko'* one is still pretty vague. Still confusing as hell😓!
Exactly! Maybe because of the shape?
@@sergiom3988 Basically, yes. 本 (hon or ほん in hiragana) is used to count long objects. This can be things like pens and pencils, but also neckties, trees, bottles, belts, flutes, etc.
@@sergiom3988 ah yes, actually I didn't see the pinned comment which elaborates on the counters 😅
@@joshdaniels2363 got it thanks😁
To specify, it's the can that is "ippon", not the beer itself :)
I feel like I finally understand why I felt so confused when learning how numbers work in Japanese😂😂
Not to mention one of the most confusing counters: DAYS
は？
ああ、that one?
ついたち・一日
ふつか・二日
みっか・三日
よっか・亖日
いつか・五日
むいか・六日
なのか・七日
ようか・八日
ここのか・九日
とおか・十日
はつか・廿日
Yes, I just used 亖 and 廿.
@@danielantony1882Props for using 廿, but how on earth did you type the archaic 四? There is also the distinction between the 3(!) was to say 1 day. ついたち is used for the fist day of the month, いちにち would be the general way of saying 1 day, and いちじつ for literary and poetic use.
@@hirigoneI see. I just saw ついたち more, so that's why I used it.
As for the archaic Kanji, I actually just found them on the internet, where archaic Chinese Hanzi are collected, and put them in my IME, both PC and Gboard on mobile. I just thought that 4 is a no-brainer, so I used it, then there's other cooler stuff, which I don't use as much.
十 - じゅう - 10
廿 - にゅう - 20
卅 - そう - 30
卌 - しゅう - 40
百 - ひゃく - 100
皕 - ひょく - 200
𤾩 - とん･とう - 300
Would be nice if we revived and reused them in colloquial or some other contexts.
@@danielantony1882 funnily enough, 廿 and 卅 (which seemingly also has 丗as a variant) still exist, they just aren’t common use.
This is one of your best 😂
And they say English is difficult.
English has these as well, they are just less common. Like "a *pair* of shoes", or "a *sheet* of paper".
Think of them like units to accompany the number.
"I thought it's flat"😂 exactly me trying to learn!
Counters (also known as measure words) aren't strange at all: they're used all the time when counting mass nouns in languages (even in English). Japanese (like many east asian languages) considers all nouns as mass nouns, so of course it's going to have a billion measure words.
They're the same as saying "a bottle of water" or "a sheet of paper". You are adding a word that makes sense to count to a mass noun, which cannot be reasonably counted (again, like water)
This explanation was really helpful! Still gonna struggle to remember them specifically, but now the concept makes sense at least. Thanks!
@@SusanJERitta the concept is very easy, the use isn't (as is usual with languages).
You are welcome and I am happy to help
Thanks for posting this, my friend. I will remember it when I get to the point of actually learning counters.
Also, you have the fact that the word for one, ichi, combines with the counter word in irregular ways
@@MisterJimLee that's what happens when words are used near eachother continuously: the word boundaries start to change and one affixes onto the other. And then sound change messes everything up
For those of you who didn’t catch it, Japanese counters are based on the shape of the object being counted. It can be really confusing when you start out but it does start to make sense with a little bit of practice and exposure.
Remember, English also has counters, just not for the same purpose !
One slice of pizza, one bowl of rice, one stick of butter
One one one
Yeah that is not really the same. Try one tablespoon of butter, one bowl of butter, one pat of butter. I don't even understand the concept of counters truthfully as they seem wildly unnecessary and confusing, but I am pretty sure what is being expressed in this video is different that units of measure or other nouns attached to quantities in English.
The only thing I can think of for english that's kind of similar and was confusing at first is: A vs An.
It's a purely grammatical concept that doesn't translate to other language
@@pickk90 "Few" vs "Little" also comes to mind, but that's not really counting, and also way more regular/rules-based
Sure, but we can also just say "one ____" in English and nobody is gonna pedantically correct you for not using the specific counter. That's the difference
Basically similar with
A *piece* of paper
A box of donut etc
Chinese same lol with different counters, 一辆车一匹马一本书一台桌子 but like tsu, ge 个 can be used to replace all
Even as a kid the counting always got me xD
Ur teaching so cool😅❤
That “I can’t” is so real 😂😂
I did JLPT N5 in two months and passed the exam but went to exam ignoring those counting😂😂
I tried and gave up
It’s too messed up but when you keep hearing them you just get used to the ones in day to day life
Love your style
If so I will do Japanese When more coming the time I should acquisite.
Thank you❤ Sensei, I appreciate all the proper examples[ex(?)] helping comprehension.
now i understand my friend's struggle when learning our language, especially the counter. massive respect to her for working so hard on it though 🎉
One of the neat things about counting words is using them with copious amounts of artistic interpretation
When I learned about counters I lost my mind (again lol), but now I find it kind of fun - I love sorting things into categories 😂
Since the start is usually the same I can just progressively learn it through watching stuff.
Love this dual personality
When u learn the kanji for most of them, it becomes very logical tbh
本当にそうだよね。外国人にとって本当に難しいよね。私でも難しく感じる。
I was totally expecting a flat chest joke
Guess my mind is too dirty 😂
いっぴき！ so cute, learning new counters today.
Actually, am i the only one who finds this really amusing? Im currently learning Japanese, and videos like these actually give me even more motivation to learn and understand it! The fact that there are a number of ways to count something, that kanji can merge and created merged meanings(my favourite example of that is "Ani" + "Ottoto" = "kyodai").
All these things that are usually absent in other languages makes learning japanese feel like a really fun rpg, where i unlock each new word or meaning and it all suddenly makes sence! What a wonderful language ❤🇯🇵🎉
Chinese, Japanese and Korean all have counters.😂
thankfully i learned chinese as a kid so this concept is quite straightforward to me
I don’t usually comment but a really well put together fun educational video 😊
Hillarious video =))), thanks! BTW, every language has its complications. I remember how English drove me crazy with all its tenses(after just 3 ones in my native Russian) and with such an alien(for me) concept as articles. Good luck also with memorizing all 9000000 possible endings of Russian words, with verbs of motion or with the fact that ear has a neutral gender, strawberry has a feminine one and nose is masculine ))
So if I want to talk about my girlfriend I have to say *"ichimai hitori"* 💀
This is the first time I’ve seen a video like this that wasn’t about how terrible English is! Haha I’m about 2 months into learning Japanese, so I’m looking forward to the challenge 😅
oh my god the bwoink sound awakened something deep inside me after not playing ss13 for like 5 years
some things are just never forgotten
My gosh, you're such a doll. Cute videos.
I imagine trying to learn these all at once would be daunting.
this is how i feel all the time when i speak istg-like atp i'm basing my counter off of memory for that specific word😭
Lol the last time I was learning Japanese this stressed me out so much I canceled my lessons with my tutor. I am now back to this same section in my textbook, I have decided that I am just not going to be perfect in this area, but I'm probably always going to sound like I have broken Japanese but at the very least I'll be understood 😂
This is why I am impressed with people who have learned how to count in japanese.
I feel you.
It's similar in Chinese. A pencil is 一支铅笔 (yī zhī qiān bǐ), which is roughly a stick of pencil?
The way I explain it is a bit like how in English, you say "a stick of dynamite" rather than "a dynamite." That's usually enough to get them to accept that you have to use "unit descriptors" in the number.
Now, when to use which one, sadly, there's no solution. The best part, I'm pretty sure whether something is a stick of or a round of or whatever is not consistent across Japanese, Chinese, etc.
And then there are the different "versions" of similar things. Like flat things. And there also, there are different "versions" of flat. There is 一张 (yī zhāng) which is a bit like "a sheet" for really flat things like paper or leaves, but 一片 (yī piàn) for slightly thicker flat things like a slice of bread. But neither apply to plates.
It's a bit like how in many European languages (except English), you have grammatical genders for words but they're not consistent across languages either. Like how "key" is feminine in French, but masculine in German. Go figure. XD
As i told you before you are good teacher😮❤❤❤❤😂i kept it in my mind really😊
Besides learning Kanji the counting is definitely one of the most maddening things about japanese!
that was beautiful and creative XD
Japanese makes me want to cry sometimes. I'm starting lessons again today after a five year break, and this has me wanting to cry before the lessons even start
It drove me so crazy when I started learning Japanese, but now I'm fine with it. There are like thousands like this but nowadays you only gave 20 or so
And here i thought i was grasping counting to have to be completely re-educated
As a Korean who learned Japanese for 2 years in high school it was horrifying that counting word don’t match up and the boundaries and concepts of what is what was so different. 😂🤷♂️
This was the hardest part of Japanese and I still don’t understand it after over 10 years in Japan.
Honestly, counters are one of the last things I started learning in Japanese before my lessons ended and honestly I was glad because even then I remember it seeming unnecessarily complicated 😂
When my teacher started explaining this, I nearly walked out of class 😂😭😭
I like how this one doesn’t leave the learner with hope 😂