Page 316 - Basic Japanese

6.27. Multiples

To express ‘two times (as much or as big, etc., as something

else), three times, four times’ and so forth, you use the
counter -bai ‘multiple.’

Rokujū wa nijū no san-bai Kore wa sono ni-bai desu.

desu.
60 is 3 times 20. This is twice (as much

as) that.

To state simple multiplication problems, you can say, for

example:

Nijū ni san o kakeru to rokujū ni narimasu.

20 x 3 = 60.

6.28. zutsu

The particle zutsu is placed immediately after a number

(numeral + counter) to mean something like ‘distributively.’
For the English translation you will find its equivalent as
‘each, every, at a time, apiece.’ The exact reference of the

phrase NUMBER + zutsu is sometimes in doubt. The sentence

Hito-taba zutsu kaimashita could mean (1) Everybody bought
one bunch; (2) We bought one bunch of each (vegetable);

(3) We bought one bunch at a time. The total information
actually supplied to us by the sentence is: somebody

bought, one bunch was the extent, and there was a
distributive relationship between the buying and the one