Counters in Japanese

Counters “count” things. English doesn’t have counters. We just say the number to count objects, people, animals, e.g. “four people”, “four books”, “four cars”—it’s all really quite simple. Unfortunately, Japanese is a little awkward here. Welcome to the world of the counter. What makes counters awkward is that the counter word changes depending on the thing you’re counting, e.g. a long object, a person, a sheet of paper, a dog. Here are the most common counters with the objects they count.

Kanji	Hiragana	English
本	ほん	Long, thin objects, e.g. a pen, a bottle
台	だい	Large objects, e.g. a car, a bicycle
枚	まい	Flat, thin objects, e.g. a sheet of paper
冊	さつ	Books, magazines, etc.
匹	びき	Animals
人	にん	People
回	かい	Times, e.g. I’ve been here three times before
目	め	Time, e.g. I passed the test on the third attempt
階	かい	Floors in a building
個	こ	Small objects, e.g. an apple
杯	はい	Glasses, e.g. three glasses of beer

And, as we saw when the number system was introduced, the pronunciation of the counter can change depending on the number that precedes it.

Kanji	Hiragana
一本	いっぽん
二本	にほん
三本	さんぼん
四本	よんほん
五本	ごほん
六本	ろっぽん
七本	ななほん
八本	はっぽん
九本	きゅうほん
十本	じゅっぽん

There is one notable exception where the correct reading is entirely different.

Kanji	Hiragana	English
一人	ひとり	One person
二人	ふたり	Two person

Natural use of these counters takes a bit of time. Fortunately, in the meantime, there is a generic counter which has you covered in most cases.

Kanji	Hiragana
一つ	ひとつ
二つ	ふたつ
三つ	みっつ
四つ	よっつ
五つ	いつつ
六つ	むいつ
七つ	ななつ
八つ	やっつ
九つ	ここのつ

Time

When we tell the time we are “counting” the hours, so times have there own counters as well (second, minutes, hours, days, etc.).

Kanji	Hiragana	English
秒	びょう	Second
分	ふん	Minute
時	じ	Hour
日	にち	Day
週	しゅう	Week
月	げつ	Month
年	ねん	Year

9時じ43分ふん。

9:43

Days of the Week

Days each get their own name like in English.

Kanji	Hiragana	English
月曜日	げつ・よう・び	Monday
火曜日	か・よう・び	Tuesday
水曜日	すい・よう・び	Wednesday
木曜日	もく・よう・び	Thursday
金曜日	きん・よう・び	Friday
土曜日	ど・よう・び	Saturday
日曜日	にち・よう・び	Sunday

Months

Months don’t get such special naming treatment and are signified only by a number. Just make a note of the syllables in bold which may not be obvious.

Kanji	Hiragana	English
一月	いち・がつ	January
二月	に・がつ	February
三月	さん・がつ	March
四月	し・がつ	April
五月	ご・がつ	May
六月	ろく・がつ	June
七月	しち・がつ	July
八月	はち・がつ	August
九月	く・がつ	September
十月	じゅう・がつ	October
十一月	じゅういち・がつ	November
十二月	じゅうに・がつ	December

Dates

Dates (e.g. 15th) take the counter にち; however, for 1-10th, 14th, 20th, and 24th of the month the pronunciation is irregular.

Kanji	Hiragana
1日	ついたち
2日	ふつか
3日	みっか
4日	よっか
5日	いつか
6日	むいか
7日	なのか
8日	ようか
9日	ここのか
10日	とおか
14日	じゅうよっか
20日	はつか
24日	にじゅうよっか

When writing the date in full the order is YEAR MONTH DAY.

2015年ねん10月がつ19日にち

19 October, 2015