かぞえかた
Japanese doesn't say “three” — it says “three flat things”
The number carries a tag for what shape of thing you mean — flat, long, bound, machine.
かみ 3まい
Don't know the right counter? ひとつ〜とお counts almost any object, up to ten.
りんご みっつ
English counts in front of the noun. Japanese leaves the noun alone and counts before the verb.
りんごを みっつ かう
りんごを みっつ ください。
Not “three apples” — the count comes after the noun, not before it.
ひとつ 〜 とお
Start here, because this one gets you out of trouble. If you don't know which counter a thing takes, this series counts almost any object you can pick up — fruit, cups, bags, chairs. It only goes to ten, and it's the only counting you can do without knowing the shape rules. 🔊 Tap any row.
These are not the いち・に・さん numbers from Unit 57 at all — they're an older, native set. Nine of the ten end in つ; only とお drops it. Past ten you go back to the Unit 57 numbers and add a proper counter.
ひとり・ふたり・〜にん
People get their own counter, 〜にん. From three up it's simply the number plus にん — but 1, 2 and 4 don't follow, and those three are the ones you'll actually use most.
ひとり and ふたり aren't 〜にん at all — they borrow the ひと／ふた from Step 1. And 4 people is よにん, with the ん dropped from よん. This is one of the places Unit 57's “second readings” shows up for real.
かたちで かぞえる
There are dozens of counters, but these four cover most of what you own. Pick the one that matches the shape, not the meaning. Two of them change their sound at some numbers — 〜ほん at 1, 3, 6, 8 and 10, 〜さつ at 1, 8 and 10. Those are the coloured rows; the other two counters never change at all.
いち → いっ, ろく → ろっ, はち → はっ — exactly what happened in ろっぴゃく and はっせん. The counter softens to meet them: ほん becomes ぽん, and after ん it becomes ぼん — which is the whole story of さんぼん. Japanese does this wherever the two halves are awkward to say together, so once you hear the pattern you can guess new counters correctly more often than not.
どこに おくか
This is the part that stays wrong longest, because English pulls you the other way. “Three apples” puts the number in front. Japanese doesn't touch the noun at all — it keeps りんごを exactly as it was and drops the count in later, just before the verb.
English counts in front of the noun — “three apples”. Japanese doesn’t touch the noun: it keeps 「りんごを」 exactly as it was and puts the count later, right before the verb. Nothing goes between the noun and its particle.
Asking is easier than you'd expect: put the question word where the count would have been and leave everything else alone.
To ask “how many”, swap the count for a question word and leave the rest of the sentence alone. いくつ is the all-purpose one (it goes with the ひとつ・ふたつ series). For the other counters, put なん in front of the counter: なんにん, なんまい, なんぼん, なんさつ, なんだい.
クイズ
Twelve questions. The English tells you the number and the shape — your job is the Japanese. Watch for the sound changes.
Question 1 / 12 · 0 correct