Page 278 - Basic Japanese

particle at all. There is a slight difference of meaning. If the

quantity word or number is used as an adverb, the noun is
referred to in an “indefinite” fashion: enpitsu ga ni-hon ‘two

pencils (some or any two pencils),’ o-cha ga sukoshi ‘a little bit
of tea.’ If the quantity word or number is used as a

modifying noun, the reference is more “definite”: ni-hon no
enpitsu ga ‘THE two pencils,’ kono sukoshi no o-cha ga ‘this little

bit of tea.’

This is about the only place where Japanese maintains
the English distinction between ‘A man’ (hito wa hitori) and

‘THE man’ (hitori no hito wa), and it is possible only when the
particle involved is wa, ga, or o. When a number or quantity

word is used as an adverb with no particle following, it’s as

if the meaning were ‘to the extent of …’: tegami o ni-tsū
kakimashita ‘I wrote letters to the extent of two’ = ‘I wrote

two letters’; tegami o takusan kakimashita ‘I wrote letters to the
extent of a lot’ = ‘I wrote a lot of letters.’ Here are more

examples:

Kono futari no Ameriki-jin wa watashi no tomodachi
desu.
These two Americans are my friends.

Sakuban gakusei ga futari asobi ni kimashita.
Last night two students came to call on me.

Futari no gakusei wa Nihongo ga dekimasu ka.
Do the two students know Japanese?