How to Use The 8 Most Common Japanese Counters

Maybe you’ve been avoiding Japanese counters until now, but you knew your days were numbered…

(Yes, that was intentional, sorry.)

Anyway—numbers are a part of daily life and conversation: when you count in Japanese, you use unique combinations of numbers + kanji to count different things. There are unique counters for counting everything from people and days and small animals to flat, cylindrical, or 3D objects.

Everyone starts from 0, so let’s get into it:

What are Japanese counters?

Put simply, a Japanese counter—known as 助数詞 (じょすうし)

—is a fancy linguistic term that refers to a word you use to count something. They are modified versions of Japanese numbers that indicate the type of object you're counting.

In other words, counters are used to count things.

Observe:

You use normal numbers when you're "generally" counting (say, from 1 to 10, when playing hide & seek), but you use counting numbers when counting specific things.

Before you panic, know that we also use counters in English, too—such as one can of soup, two sheets of paper, or three gaggles of geese. (Okay, you might not have said the last example before, but see what we mean? Counters aren't unique to the Japanese language.)

Importantly:

Japanese counters are exactly the same concept as our English counters, but whereas we use them for only some things in English, they’re used for everything in Japanese. They’re also mandatory; you must use them whenever you count something, and it'll be super noticeable/jarring if you don't.

How many Japanese counters are there?

There are about 500 different counters in Japanese. (I’m not joking.)

The good news is that, like any other vocabulary word, some are used much, much more commonly than others. Even native Japanese speakers don’t know all of the counters because it's only the super common counters that really get used in everyday life.

You’ll learn more counters as you go, but to get you started, we’ll cover the super common. If you learn to use the counters we talk about in this blog post, you'll be able to:

8 most useful counters in Japanese

Before we get started, I'm just going to pop in with one last heads up that the Japanese counting system is pretty complex. It's OK if you find this difficult. Everybody does. Hang in there, and it'll click before long 💪

1. ～つ: If in doubt, go with this one

～つ is a general counter used to count small objects, and is kind of a saving grace for Japanese counters. It can often be used if you don’t know the specific counter for something.

What can this counter be used for? ～つ is used to count a wide range of smaller objects—pretty much everything from dishes in a restaurant to miscellaneous objects you see around you to intangible things like ideas.

These days, it is more common to see numbers written out via numerals, rather than written out via kanji. For example, in the sentence below, you'll usually see 6 つ rather than 六つ, though both are correct and OK.

Example:

It's often hard to translate counters into English because we just don't use them when counting many things, but you could think of this as being something like "I bought six {things of} sandwiches"—if there were a word like batches or stacks used to count sandwiches in English.

2. ～個: Japanese counter for small things (and more!)

～個 is a general counter for (usually) concrete, tangible objects. Think of things like fruit, eggs, or individual chocolates; if it’s small enough to hold in one hand, it likely works with ～個.

What can this counter be used for? Small objects... but also gigantic objects (boulders), super tiny objects (like cells), and even things without a definite shape (such as stains or bruises).

The ～個 counter is much like the ～つ counter in that it can be used for many things. In more formal publications, such as newspapers or journal articles, you'll also likely see 〜個 used in place of 〜つ.

For example, it still works totally fine if we swap out つ for 個 in the sentences below:

3. ～人: Japanese counter for people

You count people with ～人 and it comes up often in real life and anime, so you’ll likely learn this one with ease—especially once you get past the unique ways of saying “one person,” “two people,” and “four people.”

What can this counter be used for? People.

There's a few things worth noticing here:

We'll only mention this here, but you'll run into similar situations with many counters, so pay attention!

Example:

4. ～本: Japanese counter for long or stick-shaped things

This might be where counters start to feel a little overwhelming, but stick with us. You don’t have to remember all of the uses for ～本 right now. At its core, ～本 is used to count long or stick-shaped things.

Anything that is taller than it is wide (for the most part) can use this counter.

What can this counter be used for? Plastic bottles, beer bottles, pencils, pens, skyscrapers, towers, strings, laces, cords, umbrellas, cigarettes, ties, and tree branches, to name a few.

Example:

What is も doing? If you'd said ビールを〜１０本飲みました, you'd just be stating how many beers you drank with no additional nuance. Inserting も adds emphasis—this person drank ten bottles of beer, and they think that's a lot. (Their hangover would agree!)

5. ～枚: Japanese counter for flat things

～枚 is the Japanese counter for flat things, and it covers a wide variety of everyday objects.

(‼️ Teeeeechnically the counter for books and notebooks is 冊 (さつ), but we couldn't resist. 枚 would be used to count each of the pages within that book or notebook).

What can this counter be used for? Paper, photos, t-shirts, pants, credit cards, CDs and DVDs, contact lenses, newspapers, magazines, towels, notes (cash), and walls. Interestingly, it can also be used to count servings of soba or gyoza, as the plate they come on is flat.

Example:

6. ～台: Japanese counter for machines (and platforms you can put things on)

～台 is the Japanese counter for machines and platforms you can put things on, such as a table or bed. If you love Gundam or car anime, this is one for you to remember!

What can this counter be used for? Cars, trucks, motors, washing machines, dryers, microwaves, ovens, large instruments (like a piano, cello, or harp), large furniture (like beds, tables, and couches), mobile phones, and more.

Example:

7. ～日: Japanese counter for days

～日 is the Japanese counter for days, but there are two ways it can be used:

Adding in a bit of complexity, the counter is sometimes pronounced differently depending on which of those meanings you're using.

Examples:

What is のに doing? This grammar point means “in order to (do something)”, and it is paired with the dictionary form of a verb. In this case, "in order to" draw this comic, it took 20 days.

8. ～分: Japanese counter for minutes

～分 is the Japanese counter for minutes. This is an important skill in daily conversation, naturally, and once you’ve mastered a few changes in pronunciation, you’ll be like a walking clock (almost)!

What can this counter be used for? Minutes.

Note how three and four minutes are pronounced sanpun and yonpun, not san(b)un or yon(b)un. P sounds in Japanese normally become a B if they follow an N, but in this case, somewhat unexpectedly, the original P sound is maintained.

Example:

How to tell time in Japanese

As a quick aside—now that you know how to say the minutes, let's talk about hours in Japanese, so you can tell time. The hours, thankfully, are much easier: you just tack 時 (ji) onto the end of a normal Japanese verb:

By putting these together, you can tell the time!

How to use Japanese counters in a sentence?

While there are tons of counters, the good news is that they're used in very consistent structures. These are listed out below:

1. [Noun] を [Number + Counter] [Verb]

2. [Number + Counter] の [Noun]

3. [Noun] が [Number + Counter] あります／います

4. [Period of Time] に [Number + Counter] [Verb]

5. [Number + Counter] も / しか [Verb]

6. [Question word] + Counter + Verb?

Used to ask how many of something.

What’s the best way to learn Japanese counters?

It's not just you—numbers are scary in any language, and counters doubly so.

Migaku’s Japanese Academy teaches hundreds of common grammar points alongside the most common ~1,500 Japanese words. Naturally, we have a lesson on counters:

But we also know that this is a lot of information that won't learn itself, so we follow up each lesson with a few flashcards help you remember what a grammar point means by learning sentences that feature it:

What's so special about our flashcards is that the sentences in them have been very carefully curated—each "next" flashcard will introduce only one word you don't know. From there, we’ll periodically nudge you to review each one, so you’ll eventually remember it.

Numbers in Japanese: Learn Japanese counters

Learning the numbers in any new language can be difficult, and finding out that Japanese people even categorise their numbers by object can be enough to scare you off entirely… but don’t worry!

Even just learning the counters in this blog is enough to start noticing them in your favourite shows — and from there, the number of things you’ll learn is unlimited.

As always, just remember:

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