Home Forums The Japanese Language Understanding Numbers and Counters

This topic contains 5 replies, has 4 voices, and was last updated by  Shannon 8 years, 9 months ago.

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  • #48044

    Shannon
    Member

    Ok. So I was reading an interview from a website.
    Well, not really reading, just trying to pick out what I knew and what I could read.

    And I came across this tiny piece of text.

    第一次

    Ok. So bear with me. I’m only learning 1-2 stroke kanji right now. So I have NO IDEA and won’t know for a while what the two kanji on the ends mean.
    But what caught my attention was 一

    i know that with hiragana after this specific kanji, because it’s a number, the pronunciation changes to ひと.

    And we learned when we see つ after 一, we say “hi-to-tsu” Which means one “thing”

    I have a couple questions.
    First one is, will the つ change if we actually HAVE a counter word? And would the kanji still be pronounced ひと?

    And also, what pronunciation do we use if we see other kanji before and after a number kanji?

    Thanks so much. I hope this made sense. I’m so sorry if it doesn’t an dfeel free to ask me to clarify if I need to. I’m not very good at explaining things.

    #48045

    Anonymous

    第一次 is actually pronounced だいいちじ.

    To be honest, you seem to be asking questions that are based on misunderstandings. Frankly, Textfugu is quite incorrect in what it teaches regarding readings and is not a very good source for learning Japanese. You’d better drop Textfugu and pick up some other source like Tae Kim or IMABI.

    #48046

    Shannon
    Member

    Thanks for the suggestions.

    This website and source has been quite resourceful for me thus far. I’m not confused about the way the lessons are taught, I am simply confused by my personal grasp of the content.

    If you have an answer or further explanation, it would be greatly appreciated.

    #48048

    thisiskyle
    Member

    The kanji 一 is one of the least regular kanji there are. Rules are hard to follow because there are so many exceptions. Generally, when 一  is used before a counter, the reading いち is used. But this is not always the case. The three main readings of 一 are: いち, ひと, and つい. You can see all of thiose in the list of some common 一 compounds below.

    一つ  ひと・つ
    一人  ひと・り
    一言  ひと・こと
    一目  ひと・め
    一日  つい・たち / いちにち
    一台  いち・だい
    一次  いち・じ
    一時  いち・じ
    一本  いっ・ぽん
    一匹  いっ・ぴき
    一緒  いっ・しょ
    一生  いっ・しょう

    #48049

    Joel
    Member

    つ is itself a counter word in its own right – it’s the generic “stuff” counter word used with the native Japanese numbers, which is why it uses kun’yomi. It’s pretty much only used to count as far as ten things – it does go past ten, but I don’t think it’s regularly used in modern Japanese, and I can’t remember the readings anyway. The Chinese-origin equivalent is 個, read as こ – that uses on’yomi numbers.

    一日  つい・たち / いちにち

    日 makes for some pretty freaky readings in general. Don’t fret too much over it. =)

    #48050

    Shannon
    Member

    Both of you are amazing! That clicked instantly!

    I was unaware that it was one of those wonky oddballs.

    That list of compounds was almost exactly what I was looking for!! (I basically needed other examples in which it was used and mashed next to other hiragana/kanji to see how pronunciation would change!)

    And the explanation of つ cleared it all up!

    *high fives you both* You guys get some brownie points!! :)
    THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!!! :D
    ありがとう

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