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Lesson Transcript

Do you know how to count square meters? 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?
First, let's take a look at what sorts of objects can be counted with the counter.
When you count dishes and plates, you can use the counter...
This counter word actually means "dish" or plate. You can use this counter to count
plates, and food on the plates. It doesn't have to be cooked food; when you count plates
or platefuls of something, you can use this counter. A plate of mandarin oranges, for example.
Okay, let's count numbers 1 to 10 with this counter.
一皿
二皿
三皿
四皿
五皿
六皿
七皿
八皿
九皿
十皿
Did you notice that there were some numbers that sounded different to how they usually
Sound?
Counting 1, 2 and 3 dishes takes a special form. When you read the number 10,
you should be careful.
For number one, it's 'hito-sara'
For number two, it's 'futa-sara'
For number three, it's 'mi-sara'.
For number ten, it's 'ju-ssara', not 'juu-sara.'
Okay. Now let's take a look at some sample sentences that use this counter.
トマトを二皿買いました。
“I bought 2 plates of tomatoes.”
お寿司を10皿食べました。
“I ate 10 plates of sushi.”
餃子を三皿ください。
“Can I have 3 plates of dumplings?”
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 you use the right counter.
How many plates of sushi did you eat?
お寿司を七皿食べました。
How many plates of apples did you buy?
りんごを四皿買いました。
When we express the area of a room, Japanese people use the special counter for square meters. Do you know what it is? The answer is...
一畳
This counter means "tatami mat"; in Japanese, the size of rooms was traditionally measured
by how many tatami mats they had.
For example, この部屋は、6畳です。
And this means "this room is as large as six tatami mats".
Okay, everyone. That's it for this lesson.
I'll see you next time!

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