Dialogue 4

Co-workers go out for a drink after a long day.

Vocabulary

Additional Food and Condiments

Grammar Notes

4-4-1 More Classifiers: ~hon, ~tsu

In Lesson 3, it was explained that when counting things in Japanese, numbers are combined with specific classifiers that are conventionally used for the nouns being counted. We add two classifiers, ~hon、~tsu, in this lesson.

The classifier ~hon is used to count long cylindrical objects such as bottles, pens, umbrellas, bananas, etc. The classifier ~tsu is the most generic classifier, which can be used for both tangible and intangible items such as opinions, meetings, etc. It is also used for items that do not have a special classifier. So, it may be a safe choice when you are not sure what classifier to use.

There are two numerical systems in Japanese: one of Chinese origin, which was introduced in Lesson 3, and another system of Japanese origin. The latter only goes up to the number ten.

1 hito, 2 futa, 3 mi, 4 yo, 5 itsu, 6 mu, 7 nana, 8 ya, 9 kokono, 10 tou

The classifier ~hon is combined with Chinese numerals. Note that alternatives for ~hon are ~pon (for 1, 6, 8, 10) and ~bon (for 3 and how many). The classifier ~tsu is combined with Japanese numerals and for quantities over ten Chinese numerals without a classifier are used: juu-iti, juu-ni, juu-san, etc.

Table 15. Expressions of -tsu and -hon/pon/bon when combined with numbers 1-11, as well as an unknown number.

4-4-2 Quantity Expressions

There are two kinds of quantity expressions in Japanese. One is comprised of a number and classifier (san-bon, hito-tsu, etc.) and the other is a general quantity expression (chotto, suskoshi, takusan, zenbu, minna, etc.) Within a sentence they both usually occur right before the verb, adjective, or noun +desu. Unlike English, the noun usually comes before the amount in Japanese.

Biiru, san-bon kudasai.Three (bottles of) beers, please.

Sashimi wa hito-tsu 1000-en desu.One sashimi is ¥ 1000.

Mizu o sukoshi nomitai desu.I want to drink a little bit of water.

As shown in the examples above, a quantity expression is typically marked by the lack of a particle. It is not followed by the particle ga or o. However, it can be followed by the particle wa or mo. When wa follows a quantity expression, it means ‘at least’ and when mo follows it, it implies that the number is big (that much!)

Mainichi, shukudai ga hito-tsu wa arimasu.

I have at least one HW assignment everyday.

Obentou o futatsu mo tabemashita. I ate all two bentos.

How are multiple items and numbers listed up in Japanese? Suppose we want to say ‘Three apples and four oranges, please.’ Combine the following two sentences into one.

Ringo o mit-tsu kudasai. Three apples, please.

Mikan o yot-tsu kudasai. Four oranges, please.

→ [Ringo o mit-tsu] to [mikan o yot-tsu] kudasai.

Three apples and four oranges, please.

There is no limit on how many things can be listed, but it is rare to list more than three items.

Onigiri ga mit-tsu to sando ga itsu-tsu, sorekara mizu ga ni-hon arimasu.

There are three onigiri, five sandwiches, and two bottles of water.