Page 296 - Basic Japanese

The secondary numerals are used with certain counters.

They are also used by themselves to count words that do
not take any special counter: kaban ga hitotsu ‘one suitcase,’

futatsu no mado ga ‘the two windows,’ mittsu no tsukue ‘3
desks.’ For counting above 10, the primary numerals can be

used by themselves, but they are often followed by the
counter -ko: kaban ga jūgo or kaban ga jūgo-ko ‘15 suitcases.’

The secondary numerals are also commonly used to give
ages: Ano kodomo wa itsutsu deshō ‘That child must be five

(years old).’ Watashi wa kotoshi sanjū desu ‘I’m 30 this year.’

Okāsama wa o-ikutsu desu ka? ‘How old is your mother?’ There is
a special word for ‘20 years old,’ hatachi. A somewhat more

formal way of stating ages is with the primary numerals +
the counter -sai ‘years of age’:

“Nijū is-sai desu.”
“Anata wa nan-sai desu “I’m 21.”

ka.”
“How old are you?”

6.10. Secondary counters

Here are some counters often used with the secondary

numerals. Some speakers use the secondary numerals only
for the first few numbers, then switch to the other set; other
speakers do not switch to the primary set of numerals until

eleven.

-ban nights

-fukuro bagfuls

-hako boxfuls