Common
Japanese counter word
Japanese measure words used with numbers to count things, actions, and events
Japanese counter word
In Japanese, counter words or counters are measure words used with numbers to count things, actions, and events. Counters are added directly after numbers. There are numerous counters, and different counters are used depending on the kind or shape of nouns that are being described. The Japanese term, josūshi (助数詞; lit. 'helping number word'), appears to have been literally calqued from the English term auxiliary numeral used by Basil Hall Chamberlain in A Handbook of Colloquial Japanese. In Japanese, as in Chinese and Korean, numerals cannot quantify nouns by themselves (except, in certain cases, for the numbers from one to ten; see below). For example, to express the idea "two dogs" in Japanese one could say either: but just pasting 二 and 犬 together in either order is ungrammatical. Here 二 ni is the number "two", 匹 hiki is the counter for small animals, の no is the possessive particle (a reversed "of", similar to the " 's" in "John's dog"), and 犬 inu is the word "dog". Counters are...
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