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No, I believe the GP is referring to the fact that in japanese when you ask for 'four beers' the word for 'four' is different than when you ask for 'four chairs

No, I believe the GP is referring to the fact that in japanese when you ask for 'four beers' the word for 'four' is different than when you ask for 'four chairs.' I don't fully understand it, but that is what a native speaker told me.

sdrothrock 7y ago
English has some of these words too -- they're specific kinds of counters. Paper is counted in "sheets" or "reams," for example. "I want a sheet of paper" is distinct from "I want a paper" -- outside of the context of a newspaper, the latter would be considered grammatically incorrect. It's just that in Japanese, these are more or less standardized based on the kind of thing you're counting, so 個 for small, discrete objects, 匹 for small animals, 本 for long, thin things, 冊 for bound sheaves of paper, etc. So as an example, an English interface could say something like "4 umbrellas", and the Japanese version could get away with something like "4 傘 [kasa, meaning 'umbrella']" if it's a list, but if it's in prose, you definitely need to be able to say "傘4本 [lit. umbrella 4-count-of-long-thin-object]" or something similar depending on the context.
- tigershark 7y ago
  Mmm... I don’t think that it’s the same concept as the sheet of paper. Ippai and hitotsu contain the number, in English you don’t say I want isheet or tsheet of paper to indicate that you want one or two sheets of paper and ipbeer or nibeer to ask for one or two beers.
- thaumasiotes 7y ago
  Upthread, the topic is set by yorwba's comment: >>> Japanese doesn't just have different measure words, but also different number words depending on the thing being counted. You're talking about the measure words, not the number words.
  - sdrothrock 7y ago
    I understand that; I mistakenly thought mrunkei was unclear about measure words.
tigershark 7y ago
Kirin biru ippai, tonkatsu ramen hitotsu to ask for a beer or for a ramen for the little that I remember... Definitely there is nothing similar in English.

sdrothrock 7y ago

English has some of these words too -- they're specific kinds of counters. Paper is counted in "sheets" or "reams," for example. "I want a sheet of paper" is distinct from "I want a paper" -- outside of the context of a newspaper, the latter would be considered grammatically incorrect. It's just that in Japanese, these are more or less standardized based on the kind of thing you're counting, so 個 for small, discrete objects, 匹 for small animals, 本 for long, thin things, 冊 for bound sheaves of paper, etc. So as an example, an English interface could say something like "4 umbrellas", and the Japanese version could get away with something like "4 傘 [kasa, meaning 'umbrella']" if it's a list, but if it's in prose, you definitely need to be able to say "傘4本 [lit. umbrella 4-count-of-long-thin-object]" or something similar depending on the context.

tigershark 7y ago
Mmm... I don’t think that it’s the same concept as the sheet of paper. Ippai and hitotsu contain the number, in English you don’t say I want isheet or tsheet of paper to indicate that you want one or two sheets of paper and ipbeer or nibeer to ask for one or two beers.
thaumasiotes 7y ago
Upthread, the topic is set by yorwba's comment: >>> Japanese doesn't just have different measure words, but also different number words depending on the thing being counted. You're talking about the measure words, not the number words.
- sdrothrock 7y ago
  I understand that; I mistakenly thought mrunkei was unclear about measure words.

tigershark 7y ago

Kirin biru ippai, tonkatsu ramen hitotsu to ask for a beer or for a ramen for the little that I remember... Definitely there is nothing similar in English.