Japanese Language Lesson 11 - Interrogatives and Counters

Please view previous lessons for additional vocabulary and grammar.
In this lesson you'll learn the wide variety of counters in Japanese! Did you know there's specific counters you use depending on a range of circumstances? From flat objects, to tall, cylinder shapes, to small and big animals and even a special counter for tofu! Along with these counters, we'll also go over some basic interrogatives to help you ask who's object it is and what kind of object it is. Good luck studying!
www.japansociety.org/language_...
Summary:
nanmai desuka? なんまいですか？ - How many (flat things)?
+ mai まい - counter for flat objects (t-shirt, paper, stamps, postcards)
ichimai いちまい - 1 (flat thing)
nimai にまい - 2 (flat things)
sanmai さんまい - 3 (flat things)
nanbon desuka? なんぼんですか？ - How many (long cylindrical objects)?
+ hon/pon/bon ほん／ぽん／ぼん - counter for long cylindrical objects (umbrella, beer, wine, banana, pen)
* Depending on the mouth position, you will use # + pon (for closed) / # + hon (open) and 3 is exception san-bon
ippon いっぽん - 1 (cylinder thing)
nihon にほん - 2 (cylinder thing)
sanbon さんぼん - 3 (cylinder thing)
+ dai だい - counter for car/machine
+ wa わ - counter for birds
+ piki/hiki/biki ぴき／ひき／びき - counter for small animals
+ tou とう - counter for big animals
hitori ひとり futari ふたり / # + nin (3 and up) - counter for people
+ ken/gen けん／げん - counter for homes
+ chou ちょう - counter for tofu
All around counter (up to 10)
hitotsu ひとつ - 1
futatsu ふたつ - 2
mittsu みっつ - 3
yottsu よっつ - 4
itsutsu いつつ - 5
muttsu むっつ - 6
nanatsu ななつ - 7
yattsu やっつ - 8
kokonotsu ここのつ - 9
tou とう - 10
dare/donata (more polite) desuka? だれ／どなたですか？ - who is it?
donna (object) desuka? どんな（＿＿＿）ですか？ - what type of (object) is it?
doko (object) desuka? どこ（＿＿＿）ですか？ - where/what company made (object)?
For more information about Japanese language classes at the Japan Society, please visit our website! Also, be sure to check out our other language videos and be sure to subscribe if you enjoy!
www.japansociety.org/language_...

[@Surgicalsensei]

I can't believe there's so many different ways to count things. Flat things. Tofu. Time. Apples. I need a whole day to study this one

[@jsswift87]

The same thing exists in Chinese. There's no way I understood measure words (as my teacher called them) in 8 mins. This video requires so much background knowledge. It's a big jump from the previous ones.

[@nikolozkhutsaidze8643]

+DaZ316 my advice!! at first learn one way to count, wich is used for anithing!! hitocu, futacu, micu ...... you don't need more ways so far. after some time your japanes experence will give you it itself

[@jasonli9074]

Why from 10 episode everything suddenly become so diffucult.........

[@abcdef7859]

real face of japanese :))))

[@TheDropdeadZed]

Tbh just ignore counters. Like literally, they're the most difficult thing about the language and only account for a small amount of the language. There's tons of counters for all sorts of object types so I guess unless there's a common type of object you might have to refer to often, just skip this til nearer to the end.

[@RoseLK]

agree! :(

[@sunsad]

Suddenly assumes that we can read the hiragana without its pronunciation

[@TheRottinCheez]

sunsad go learn hiragana then. It takes like a couple afternoons to learn. If you struggle here, good luck with the rest of the language

[@paulstaker8861]

This video is the final boss.

[@shococo100]

things escalated quickly it went from woah this stuff is easy to wtf is this in just one video

[@paulstaker8861]

rabii mahdoud you ain't seen nothing yet

[@jsswift87]

You know when you play a game as a kid and can't figure out how to beat it, then 15 years go by and you wonder how you were so bad. This video makes me feel about 5 years old.

[@noncanadian]

+rabii mahdoud yeah idk what's going on xD

[@Human_01]

Lmao just 10 more years before you'll understand the video xD

[@JoJoTheOtter]

Oh my goodness! I literally laughed out loud at the "Purada no kaban desu" part, where the price tag said "+1 kidney" 笑笑笑

[@TheFlipto]

+jarannalli hahaha, yes it is so expensive that it worth a kidney, :)

[@AseEel00]

right hahahahahaha

[@lone.serval]

Me tooo X3

[@JutaLovelace]

Same XD

[@orkumm]

8:01

[@user-hs8mo5wd4m]

That joke about going back to the store twice really got me. I laughed soooo hard and told everyone around me lol

[@dorsafgatri4142]

me toooo hahahahaha

[@mdobejr]

lol same, this woman is hilarious :P

[@mahimsd7645]

me toooooo

[@SpaceZombie]

Loved it as well haha

[@michaelsweswe]

I had to rewind back to look for the kidney!! 😄

[@karolinaperat6082]

I watched this video for the first time about two weeks ago...at that time I still didn't know hiragana (now I've started katakana)...I can say that at that time I was like: it's impossible, I don't get anything...now I'm like: wow, look I can read what's written there!!! To all those who are learning....がんばってください (GANBATTE KUDASAI) IT'S WORTH IT!!!! The joy of understanding is so much greater than the difficulties to study it! Thank you very much for all your work in making this videos, they're really appreciated.

[@devanshchopkar3856]

Hai ganbarimasu😁😁

[@countbaker5595]

I guess its easier to go to the store twice rather than having to learn all of this.

[@aldiwibowo8011]

lmao True

[@mcgil8891]

Lol yeah

[@dreamaboutzu]

fact!

[@JapanSocietyNYC]

Please don't hesitate to ask us questions! Ganbatte kudasai :)

[@mEtAlMaNiAc787]

OK I'll admit I got completely lost on this one.

[@footballartistn7463]

lmao same here.

[@daniellerichardson7373]

Me too!

[@9ShivamSharma]

I was trying to learn japnese what she started teaching chinese in this lecture ! -peace (kzbin.info/www/bejne/rGjWqaabaquAgtE)

[@MuttFitness]

In english you don't say I want 6 water. You say I want 6 glasses of water. In much the same way you need to put a unit on everything in japanese. You don't want 6 stamps, you want 6 flat thing stamps.

[@Khushi_R9]

me too

[@gallenfier]

"+1 kidney" I love the sense of humour in your lessons :)

[@evlienace]

same for me

[@AmandaCavallaro]

I love the background, the board, and the sensei! Thank you for this.

[@JDemen82]

The level of difficulty from lesson 10 to lesson 11 jumped way too high, I feel lost.

[@ClbnaVGM]

1:59 On the wine bottle is written in french sueur de chien "Dogs' sweat"

[@andherewegoagain522]

Great lessons!!!

[@belledominguez6401]

I started learning nihongo from her videos thank you so much, it really help my self study as she pronounced it good

[@bellat4076]

I learnt Japanese the most from you. It's so straight forward and you don't waste any time and your jokes are hilarious.

[@takeshifuruya4341]

*Clicked "Watch Later" button, Then I try to learn Hiraganas and Katakanas **30 minutes later** I pass out due to sever headache ;-;

[@Peterplayingguitar]

She is an EXCELLENT teacher! Domo arigatou gozaimasu!

[@omanaraghavan3081]

The best teaching method

[@MartB1979]

You need to go to the store twice!!! lol These are really good lessons

[@namdevchintapalli]

Thanks for your videos but we require translation in English.

[@debrucey]

+namdev chintapalli That's what the pictures are for

[@jamc666]

+namdev chintapalli true, without proper translation or even some slight explanation about how stuff is expressed, those videos are next to useless. One might "know" stuff, but cant actually "teach" stuff.

[@debrucey]

+jamc666 there is explanation. Whenever a new word or idea is introduced. Also the several videos in the series before this one. If you've watched them properly and practiced the stuff in them, you shouldn't need literal translations for what's in this video.

[@jamc666]

Bruce Jefferies Have been watching a couple of those videos. They all boil down to reading example sentences without meaningful explanation; the viewer ends up watching the same video over and over again and go figure out what's what by him/herself ... Nevermind, there are other, better, channels out there to bring Japanese across.

[@debrucey]

The explanation is plenty meaningful. You just haven't understood it.

[@sheelapatil6338]

Good skill of teaching......please keep it up ....good job

[@iamnot8397]

Thank you soo much for this it really helped!!

[@Human_01]

Thanks for everything JS, but I believe this is were we go our separate ways. This video was difficult to understand, no english translations, heck I didn't even know what an "Interrogatives" was lol. Puni puni here I come! >:3

[@duane_313]

"Interrogative" is an english she ironically mispronounced horribly lol

[@ashokbista9465]

Your teaching style is really better God bless you..........keep it up

[@asherxs]

Out of all the lessons on this channel, I learned the most from Miyashita-sensei.

[@aidanista]

Did anyone else get super confused on this one!?!? Coming back to it later!!!

[@RW77777777]

it is helpful to learn hiragana; and they were nice enough to give us 10 lessons before gently suggesting it

[@MrMacktheknife888]

Thank you michellesan.

[@user-nk6ie3vm3p]

Thank you so much 🥰🙏

[@ChuaDaphne]

I LOLed when you showed the prada bag to be the price of 1 kidney

[@Salvagehu]

I love the way she teaches :)

[@choppermonster2176]

I've noticed that if you go though the later lessons once or twice, then go back and rewatch early ones, you can understand a bit more of what is going on and learn more from them then if you only watched the lessons in order until you mastered them

[@MishaBourne]

Жаль, что в этом уроке, нет английских субтитров. Спасибо огромное! Ваш юмор просто восхитителен. Очень приятно учиться по вашим урокам. Простите, что на русском!)

[@nefset707]

Definitely it has so many things to learn seen from even me Japanese, though it's made well in order to be understood (aside from the speed lol). The comments here remind me of learning English articles...!

[@yingxiong9780]

this lesson is overwhelming...............@O@.........

[@88KeysMan]

Yeah, it was a lot, but do your best. I don't think these ***free*** classes suck at all.

[@kuroichan101]

Really helpful; I had to rewind to fully get it though lol. The tsu counter was easy to understand :) The closed lip and open lip thing confused me but after watching it again I think I get it.

[@212Tasneem]

this is really helpful! arigato!

[@fionazhang608]

せんせい, I love you sooooo much! This video is so hard but don't worry せんせい , I'll keep learning it! ❤️

[@Alissafy]

I like this sensei!

[@ninaasmr8384]

She put Japanese letters... Thats what screwed me over =/

[@meofomi]

***** hhahhhaha that is happening to me as well >.

[@jolizelle]

***** You should learn Hiragana and Katakana, it's quite easy actually :)

[@corydidit2879]

QUIT IT WITH THE KANJI, TEACH ME WITH ROMANJI

[@tatianagalaxy4378]

I guess I'll be one of those people returning to store twice XDD I wish I could have a sensei like you! You are an amazing teacher! Arigatou!

[@phylad]

How funny that I live in Japan and I am learning the language from you in the US! Thx!

[@xeon8519]

wow im sooo happy, that this series gets continued! :) her lessons helped me to pass my exam in japanese 1 ! :) but i cant read hiragana, so i need to work on that now :(

[@rusdidaning7407]

It's been 10 years, how's the progress?

[@Kasapamese]

I learned new things today :) doumo arigatou sensei

[@MrKrazybro]

Why did they stop typing the Japanese with English characters? So hard to follow along now

[@senatorlegweak8074]

Long cylinder things:(bon) 1 - ippon 2 - nihon 3 - sanbon 4 - yonhon 5 - gohon 6 - roppun 7 - nanahon 8 - happon 9 - kyuhon 10 - jyuppon How much - ikura desuka?

[@iseljimenez7819]

You help me a lot!

[@shadigholami9673]

it was terrific,i could not understand without english translations

[@footballartistn7463]

Im glad its mostly hiragana since I memorize and I understand most katakana as well, but I couldnt really grasp this one. I understand the different counters but I just got lost when she was saying all the bags at the end, I didnt know what they meant but I could read it which doesn't really help. Thank you for the amazing lesson.

[@WertELWIS1]

best sensei ever :)

[@alfiemccalfry6635]

Just realized there were notes from the lesson in the description this whole time. I was manually typing the notes this whole time.

[@amjichingu6998]

I was doing it manually since lesson 1! Thank you for your comment, you are gold!

[@JapanSocietyNYC]

On is a Chinese-style reading of a character. Kun is a Japanese reading of Chinese character. I found the article about them online so you can check it out. Search "The Types Of Kanji In Japanese: On’Yomi vs. Kun’Yomi."

[@noueyxx]

I second a comment posted earlier here. Romaji captions for those big sentences would be a great help really

[@LuisEvies]

OMG! Maybe she doesn't have a perfect pronunciation but she's the best, I keep everything in my mind when she is the teacher, she is amazing.

[@russellschaeffler]

Thank you very much... I have often wondered why the counters changed pronunciation.

[@triborneemitra2477]

this is really fast....cnt grasp that easily

[@Josh92405]

this is my first video here and i already subscribed ^^

[@PhxATT]

Respect and thanks for all japanese lessons, I was delighted about it and happy, but at this point I'm starting to cry.... :( "long things-ippon niho" OMG... I'll never to learn it! :(((

[@houfou]

Since you made the lessons from now on with only using Japanese letters, could you please add some Romaji subtitles, in order for the lessons to be understood more easily?

[@riaperera2705]

most difficult lesson of the series so far especially without the romanization and with the speed. head spinning 0.o

[@MeiChan282]

ありがとうございました。

[@NocturnalBirth]

She is the best. :)

[@boamyname87]

"Go to the store twice." >.< haha

[@chesterpaule5878]

My Eyes Are Spinning...And There Is A Question Mark On The Top Of My Head 😂😂😂And Now I Have A Headache....Well This Will Take Me While To Memorize....Still Thanks JapaneseSociety For Teaching Us Because Of Your Teaching We've Understand Japanese Better 😄😄😄

[@9ShivamSharma]

no problem I realized she was teaching chinese soon before ! -peace (kzbin.info/www/bejne/jHnCqmaMfpKabJI)

[@velvetsun2949]

Its ok ill just watch it again and again until i get it

[@aisyahchance]

kzbin.info/aero/PLvfyEkzQwHG7bC_Egyyzx1tw59rwNqahb For extra referrence!

[@aaronyamato2230]

I've just practiced Katakana and Hiragana for 2 weeks. Now I can keep up. I'm still having difficulties learning kanji though.

[@mameylayalawson9240]

Cool!

[@Oct8pus]

Lesson 11 jumped right into Hiragana from scratch!

[@RoseLK]

Well, i rarely understand anything from this lesson though I am following from the 1st lesson :(

[@hwanglay6800]

From my understanding, the all around counter from 1-10 is quite similar to the day of the month from 1-10.. It will be much easier to understand then. Good luck ^_^

[@tacchinotacchi]

If anyone's italian here, when she starts to list all the ways to count she reminds me of Nico from "Mai dire gol" "Sapparregghielle per Olivera, per Dely Valdes suffinnigghi!"

[@TheMadskillz04]

did someone understand this story of the opening of the mouth and differences between hon, pon, bon ?? i'm lost on this one, thank you!

[@sanjeevwijayasinghe9001]

i have learned a lot

[@fatihahamlat2563]

Can someone explain to me the bag 💼 stuff please

[@ajeyaran1]

When I started learning Japanese, the very first thing I learned was the Hirigana and Katakana alphabet. So that actually wasn't really confusing to me. I thought from 6:50 onwards, that's when it got really confusing.

[@not_hollow_yet]

On this moment, i closed video and go to sleep.

[@barbaraklos6646]

I agree with Jason, usually you have the words written in English, but they were not. I will have to watch this and find another sight that has it in English spelling

[@AndreanBS]

This lesson is tricking me

[@kabarre8906]

HI ! Thanks for the great lessons ! I have question. Why is there a difference between 4 minutes and 4 long cylinder things. In lesson 9, 4 minutes is : yon"pun" with lips closed, and here in lesson 11, 4 long cylinder is :yon"hon", with lips open.

[@ABCD-bj3kf]

LOL the brand of the wine 'sueur de chiens' means dogs sweat

[@jamc666]

lmao ... so true

[@krimzee]

Had me laughing at the joke she made about going to the store twice. Best Sensei ever indeed.

[@DiamondFinder64]

wait after the counters like houses do you say like this: sanken uchi and the all around counters are for different things only are or i can use it for 1 type of thing

[@jennifergalang6846]

arigatou sensei,.

[@donvid7005]

yay no more romaji xD. learning kana first pays off !.. though i have to go through this one a few time to get a good grasp on it lol

[@bobby00071]

i agree.....compare to previous lessions....most of the things gone above my head.....bc most of the things are in japanese words...and verval not written in words.....Pls help us....DOMO ARIGATO.

[@CosmoLegenS]

Good video .. some kanji's are back (Wow) the only thing that they didn't review was about the two different ways to counter 雑誌、新聞 that could be 冊、部　but gj I like the videos from JS

[@1234SLUR]

i'm back from learning hiragana / katakana I"M READY

[@gerleable]

First of all, thank you very much for your lessons. Until this lesson No. 11 I was almost understanding, and reading what written your board - but now I cannot read any thing as I do not know how to read your script. I am puzzled and not sure whether I can continue this lesson. Too bad. Sorry.

[@zulfiyakamenskaya5897]

本当にありがとうございました ^_^

[@thor_butnotdead]

Sensei, domo arigatou gozaimasu ! :)

[@AnimeObsession3000]

"$$$$$ + 1 kidney" XD

[@user-sf2mt6cq5h]

上手い

[@lalakeys9453]

when you write it in the charaters could you also letter it like you did with the previous videos so we as students can understand how its said or pronouced like for exampleありがとう(arigatou)

[@zero-it2pu]

I'm sure you've learned your kana by now ;)

[@lalakeys9453]

yah kind of still practicing tho

[@lalakeys9453]

yah kind of still practicing tho

[@lalakeys9453]

yah kind of still practicing tho

[@lalakeys9453]

yes kind of still practicing though

[@colourfulwords66]

Hello. Very useful videos. Thank you. One question if I may - How do you count repeated ACTIONS - kicks of a football for instance or steps walked up a hill.

[@siriusmaia]

colourfulwords66 Generally, repeated actions are counted by the word "kai回". For example, "once" is "1kai(ikkai)1回", "twice" is "2kai(nikai)2回", "three times" is “3kai(sankai)3回”, “four times” is “4kai(yonkai)4回”,･･･. “kicking a football 5 times” is “sakka:bo:ru(=football) wo 5kai(gokai) keru サッカーボールを5回蹴る”, and “6 kicks” is “6keri(rokkeri)6蹴り”. “keru蹴る” is a verb for “kick”, and “keri蹴り” is a noun for “kick”. Steps are counted with the word “ho/po歩”. “1 step” is “1歩(ippo)”, “2 steps” is “2歩(niho)”, “3 steps” is “3歩(sanho/sanpo)”,･･･. This can be used either in walking up a hill or in walking the level ground.

[@colourfulwords66]

thx

[@arbaeden2308]

I didn't understand anything from the last part, with the bags. Someone can please explain it to me?

[@worldterrificfights2940]

In lesson nine you used 4young as closed mouth in this video it’s open (hun) is there a difference or was it mistakenly done just curious?

[@DamKaKaDaNi]

xDD The price for the Prada bag "+ 1 kidney", seems legit to me (sarcasm).

[@zacharywho5442]

why did 350 use "Biyaku" instead of "hiyaku" for 100? Is it another conjugation, if so what are the rules?

[@LienNguyen-sf9wc]

This lesson doesnt have latin words. I dont know katakana or higarana, I just want to learn to speak. Please design lessons as previous ones. They're easier to follow.