Home Forums The Japanese Language 二人 の 子 じゃありません。

This topic contains 2 replies, has 2 voices, and was last updated by  Hokuto 5 years, 5 months ago.

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  • #50618

    Hokuto
    Member

    二人 の 子 じゃありません。
    I do not understand it.
    What is the logic?

    There was this sentence.
    (しち) 七人じゃありません

    So do not it should be 二子 じゃありません。?

    While I was whriting NIN on jisho (ime do not work on my pc), I’ve seen which 人 is “person”, but also “counter for people”. I suppose which it is used as a counter in this sentence.

    #50619

    Joel
    Member

    Yeah, when you count anything in Japanese, you must use a counter word. 人 is the counter word for 子 (or indeed, any sort of people). The formation is [number][counter]の[noun being counted], or [noun being counted]を[number][counter][verb] (as in ビールを二本飲みました = I drank two bottles of beer).

    In the second sentence, 人 is still functioning as a counter word – it’s just that 七人の人 is a little bit redundant – you only need to explicitly state the noun when it’s more than just generic people.

    Please note, though, that the reading for 二人 is ふたり. It, along with 一人 (ひとり), is a weird freaky exception – for 3 and up it’s on’yomi+にん (except 四人, which is よにん because しにん sounds like 死人 which means “corpse”).

    #50620

    Hokuto
    Member

    Thank You very much, Joel!

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