Do you know how to count youkan? I'll tell |
you the answer at the end of this lesson! |
Hi everybody! I'm Alisha |
こんにちは、 Yamamori です。 |
Welcome to Japanese Counters for Beginners, where |
you'll learn how to count all sorts of different objects in Japanese! |
Yamamori-sensei, what counter will we learn in this lesson? |
切れ (kire) |
First, let's take a look at what sorts of objects can be counted with the counter. |
When you count a piece of meat, you can use the counter 切れ (kire). |
You can use this counter to count slices, fillets, and pieces of meat, fish, bread, |
cake, and so on. |
The kanji for this counter means "cut", so it literally means the number of cuts. |
Okay, let's count numbers 1 to 10 with this counter. |
一切れ |
二切れ |
三切れ |
四切れ |
五切れ |
六切れ |
七切れ |
八切れ |
九切れ |
十切れ |
Did you notice that there were some numbers that sounded different from the usual numbers? |
Counting 1, 2 and 3 takes a special form. |
And when you read the number 6 and 10, you should be careful. |
For number 1, it's 'hito-kire', not 'ichi-kire' |
For number 2, it's 'futa-kire', not 'ni-kire' |
For number 3, people read it as 'san-kire' these days, but it can also be read as 'mi-kire' |
For number 6, it's 'ro-kire', not 'roku-kire.' |
For number 10, it's 'ju-kkire', not 'juu-kire' |
Okay. Now let's take a look at some sample sentences that use this counter. |
マグロを四切れ買いました。 |
"I bought 4 fillets of tuna." |
この肉は、一切れいくらですか? |
"How much is 1 fillet of this meat?" |
アップルパイを二切れ食べました。 |
"I ate 2 slices of apple pie." |
Now it's time for a Quiz. I'm going to ask you a question in English. |
Answer it in Japanese. Are you ready? |
Make sure to use the right counter. |
How many fillets of fish did you buy? |
魚を六切れ買いました。 |
How many pieces of cake are you going to give your |
younger sister? |
妹にケーキを三切れあげます。 |
Do you know the Japanese confectionery called yōkan? |
This confectionery has a special counter. |
Can you guess what it would be? The answer is... |
一棹 |
This counter means 'rod'. When you count rods or bars of 'yōkan', you can use this counter. |
For example, 羊羹を一棹ください。 |
And it means "Can I have one whole yōkan, please?" |
Okay, everyone. That's it for this lesson and the series. |
I'll see you next time! |
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