How to count animals in Japanese

Japanese "counters" are sort of similar to English expressions like "slices of (bread)" or "sheets of (paper)". Different counter words are used depending on what they are counting (for example, objects, people, animals, etc.) This article will introduce how to count "animals" in Japanese.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Will to learn

1. It is a good idea to first review how to count 1 to 10 in Japanese. The following site talks about how to count and write 1 to 10 in Japanese. (http://www.ehow.com/how_4666061_count-write-japanese.html)

2. The counter words for most animals and insects are "hiki". "hiki" sometimes becomes "piki" or "biki" depends on how many numbers of animals are there. For example, "two cats" in Japanese are "neko ni-hiki". Here, "neko" is "cat", "ni" is "two" and "hiki" is the counter word. However, for "one cat", it becomes "neko ippiki" and for "three cats", it becomes "neko san-biki".

3. Here's the counter words for animals and insects with numbers. 1 is "ippiki" (sometimes "ichi hiki" but "ippiki" is more common), 2 is "ni-hiki", 3 is "san-biki", 4 is "yon-hiki", 5 is "go-hiki",, 6 is "roppiki", 7 is "nana-hiki", 8 is "happiki", 9 is "kyu-hiki" and 10 is "jyuppiki". We can use these "hiki/biki/piki" counters for cats, dogs, ants, butterfly, etc. If you want to say "there are four cats", you can say "neko ga yon-hiki imasu". "neko" is "cat", "ga" is a particle", "yon-hiki" is "four (and counter word)" and "imasu" is "there are". If within the context of the conversation, you and the other already know you are talking about cats, the subject ("cats" in this case) can often be omitted. In that case, you can just say "yon-hiki imasu".

4. 
    
   a large animal

   For large animals, "tou" is used (pronounced more like "tow" as in "tow truck". For example, "tou" is used to count whale, giraffe, horse and cow. 1 is "ittou", 2 is "ni-tou", 3 is "san-tou", 4 is "yon-tou", 5 is "go-tou", 6 is "roku-tou", 7 is "nana-tou", 8 is "hachi-tou" or "hattou", 9 is "kyu-tou" and 10 is "jyuttou". Some people count these large animals using "hiki". For example, instead of "uma yon-tou" ("uma" is "horse"), sometimes people say "uma yon-hiki". This is often acceptable.

5. 
    
   a bird

   Counter words for "birds" are "wa". 1 is "ichi-wa", 2 is "ni-wa", 3 is "san-ba", 4 is "yon-wa", 5 is "go-wa", 6 is "roku-wa" (or "roppa"), 7 is "nana-wa", 8 is "hachi-wa" (or "happa"), 9 is "kyu-wa" and 10 is "jyu-wa". I was taught that "rabbit" is also count as "wa" just like birds. I heard that is because "rabbit" was hunted just like "birds" in Edo period. However, I hear most people count "rabbit" as "hiki/piki/biki" these days.

Tips & Warnings

• Distinguishing "hiki", "tou" and "wa" is often difficult even for Japanese. For example, some people count ostrich or penguin using "hiki". Other people use "wa" (some other people even use "tou"). So, don't worry too much when using these counter words in animals.

Resources

• How to count and write 1 to 10 in Japanese

[sneedc]

on 3/13/2009 Thank you for teaching us, this is a lot of work, phew! I want a mai tai! 5*

[Gardengates]

on 3/9/2009 Wow. It really shows how the different ways of thinking are at work in a language -- counting animals or anything else. Fascinating.