Checkpoint: Numbers and Counting

Three systems, and how to tell which one a moment wants

The Chinese-derived numbers count everything that has a counter and everything that has a unit: money, minutes, floors, people from three upwards. The older native series – ひとつ to とお – covers objects with no counter of their own and stops at ten. And a number used as a label takes ばん and counts nothing at all. Deciding which one you need is deciding what kind of question is being asked: how much, how many of what kind, or which one.

Where the sound changes

Three numbers cause almost every sound change you will meet: いち, ろく and はち double a following consonant, and さん voices it. So the floor counter gives いっかい, さんがい, ろっかい; the small-round counter gives いっこ, ろっこ, じゅっこ. Nothing else in the system is irregular, and the changes are ones your mouth would make anyway if you said the two words quickly together.

ぜんぶでにせんごひゃくえんになりますThat comes to two thousand five hundred yen altogether.

おとなふたりとこどもひとりですTwo adults and one child.