242 CHAPTER 5. COUNTERS AND COUNTING
- Instances, number of
This is a general purpose counter used to count ”numbers of [something]”,
such as the number of eggs needed for a specific recipe, or the number of
bricks in a wall. The pronunciations are:
And example of use would be:”How many eggs should (I) add?”This counter is a typical fall-back counter when you do not know the
proper counter for something, although with the note that it only makes
sense for things that can be measured in units, or instances. So eggs and
bricks are fine, people or thoughts are not.
- Items
This is a special general counter for counting items. Because this counter
creates statements such as ”I will have four [items]”, it’s typically omiĴed
in translation because it doesn’t indicate what kind of items are counted
at all, merely that they are being counted. The pronunciations for this
counter, as mentioned in the counting section, are what make this parti-
cle special, since it uses the native Japanese pronunciations for 1-9, and
has a special question word:
( )
( )Important to note is that doesn’t actually have as counter at all.
The question word for this counter can not just be used to ask ”how many