Stating Your Age

1
Class Session 8a Chapter 5

• Stating Your Age
• Counters
• Using a Number Phrase in a Sentence
• Using takusan and sukoshi to Express Quantity
• Question Words with Counters

2
Stating Your Age

• To ask someones age
• nan-sai desu ka. (nan-sai , what age? How
  old?)
• o-ikutsu desu ka. (more polite) (ikutsu, how
  many? how old?)
• To say your age, add the counter sai after the
  number
• ni-ju-sai desu. (???, hatachi)
• (I am) 20.
• ni-ju-go-sai desu.
• (I am) 25.

3
Counters

• The Japanese use a complicated counter system for
  enumerating things (similar to
• the use of counters in English a herd of
  cows, a flock of sheep, a gaggle of geese)
• The counter system was borrowed from Chinese,
  along with the numbers
• There is a different counter that varies
  according to the size, shape and type of
• item being counted
• There are about 240 different counters for things
• Some of the counters cause minor sound changes or
  exceptional pronunciations
• This lesson introduces several common counters
• mai for counting flat things (sheets of paper,
  tickets, towels, etc.
• hon for long cylindrical things (pens,
  bananas, cigarettes, bottles of beer, etc.)
• nin for people

4
Counters - Form and Pronunciation (p81 of
textbook)
Number Flat Item Cylindrical Item
People Medium-size Items1 1
ichi-mai ip-pon hito-ri
hito-tsu 2 ni-mai ni-hon
futa-ri futa-tsu 3 san-mai
san-bon san-nin
mit-tsu 4 yon-mai yon-hon
yon-nin yot-tsu 5 go-mai
go-hon go-nin
itsu-tsu 6 roku-mai rop-pon
roku-nin mut-tsu 7
shichi-mai nana-hon shichi-nin
nana-tsu 8 hachi-mai hap-pon
hachi-nin yat-tsu 9
kyu-mai kyu-hon kyu-nin
kokono-tsu 10 ju-mai jup-pon
ju-nin
to ------------------------------------------- 1
These are really the native Japanese words for
the numbers 1-10.
5
Using a Number Phrase in a Sentence

• When using a number phrase in a sentence, place
  it after the item (and particle)
• the number refers to
• watashi wa ane ga futa-ri imasu.
• I have two older sisters.
• watashi wa ane ga futari to, ani ga hito-ri to,
  ototo ga hito-ri imasu.
• I have two older sisters, one older brother,
  and one younger brother.
• When using the tsu counters (native Japanese
  numbers), there are two ways to express the
  number of things
• enpitsu ga futatsu arimasu. There are two
  pencils.
• futatsu no enpitsu ga arimasu. There are two
  pencils.
• You can always use this method if you do not
  know the counter word

6
Using takusan and sukoshi to Express Quantity
(pp82-83)

• Instead of using a number phrase there are two
  words you can use to express both
• amount and quantity for both countable and
  uncountable items
• takusan (a large amount, a large quantity)
• sukoshi (a small amount, small quantity)
• Place the word where you would normally see the
  number
• Examples
• kukkii ga takusan arimasu. keki mo sukoshi
  arimasu.
• There are a lot of cookies. There are some cakes
  too.
• watashi wa chugoku-jin no tomodachi ga takusan
  imasu.
• I have many Chinese friends.
• kankoku-jin no tomodachi mo sukoshi imasu.
• I also have some Korean friends.

7
Question Words with Counters

• To ask the quantity or amount of some items, you
  can use the question word
• nan (from nani) with the appropriate
  counter
• nan-mai how many (flat items)?
• nan-bon how many (cylindrical items)?
• nan-nin how many (people)?
• iku-tsu how many?
• Examples
• kono hako no naka ni origami ga nan-mai arimasu
  ka.
• How many sheets of orgiami paper are there in
  this box?
• gakusei ga nan-ni imasu ka.
• How many students are there?