An introduction to Japanese - Syntax, Grammar & Language

258 CHAPTER 5. COUNTERS AND COUNTING

An example sentence would be:

”This book is from 1878.”
(The era ran from 1886 to 1912, so the 10th year of the Meiji era
is 1878)
The words for the immediate past and future years use a slightly
different paĴern than we saw for weeks and months:

three years ago (2 years before last)

the year before last

last year

this year

next year

the year after next

• Scholar year Listed as separate counter only because this counter
  will be relevant to you as a student of Japanese, indicates ”year of
  study”, so that an is a first year student, and a is a fourth
  year student:

”(I) am Himaru, 2nd year student at Tokyo University.”

Undergraduate students are referred to as

, and graduate

students as
.

• Years of duration

Once more, adding turns the counter into a durational counter:

”(He) kept with his title (lit: seating) as champion for three years.”