Japanese counting

[Mux213]

Heya,

Found this interesting fact on the net just now. I was looking at counting in japanese and it seems that the official way to name a number above 19 is to say number 10 number.

That would mean that hachi roku is not 86 but 8 and 6. 86 would be hachi ju roku.

Both you could argue are correct, who sais that the 86 in ae86 is 86 and not 8 and 6.

Confused yet?

Anyways, counting in Japanese for those that find this stuff interesting:

1: ichi
2: ni
3: san
4: shi
5: go
6: roku
7: shichi
8: hachi
9: kyu
10: ju
11: ju ichi
12: ju ni
13: ju san
...
19: ju kyu
20: ni ju
21: ni ju ichi
22: ni ju ni
23: ni ju san
...
29: ni ju kyu
30: san ju
31: san ju ichi
...
100: kyaku
101: kyaku ichi
102: kyaku nu
...
120: kyaku ni ju
121: kyaku ni ju ichi
...
200: Uhm no idea actually bu I guess it would be: ni kyaku

well you get the idea

[s.bjelke]

hehe, I get it :wink:

Nice writeup here mux

[Mux213]

Bjelke,

Well I dont take total credit, found most of this info on some site on the web and just typed my own version of it

[ZaX]

I use "Roseta stone" software for learning japanese language.
Not an easy one.

[banpei]

Hmmm, anyone up for registering hachijuroku dot anything?

[jamiemirror]

2 banpei:
too late, such site already exists. But I think that aeu86.org is the most meaningfull domain name :-)

[Mux213]

jamie

hachi ju roku doesn't exist yet, only hachiroku

But indeed, I see no reason for such a site name

[Widar]

Yeah, AE86 has always been said A - E - 8 - 6 in japanese. I do pronounce it "86" in swedish.. hmm.

Btw, any number above 29 is pronounced in the exact same way in swedish as in the japanese,
31 , tretioett, tre = 3, tio = 10, ett = 1.

Japanese is easy and logical!

[Mux213]

Widar,

I can't bring my self to spend the proper time to learn this language although I was well on my way before I met my girlfriend and had to switch to Cantonese.

Now the thing with asian language like cantonese, manderin and japanese is that the grammer is the simplest around!! Japanese is most likely the most easy language to learn grammer wise.

What makes these languages difficult is that you have all these different tones that change similar words and for a europian its very hard to hear the differences. Als offcourse not using an alfabet means you have to learn all the signs. In this respect Japanese again is the easiest because there is an alfabet form of japanese that is great if you want to learn to understand and speak japanese and dont care about being able to write/read it and that in japanese there are only 3 tones, not 7 like in cantonese.

Some nice things about cantonese to realize:
To buy something or to sell something is the word maai but you either say it with the tone going up or down. I still get them wrong so cantonese people will not figure out if I am selling something or buying it
The same way is that 9, dog and dick are all forms of the word gau or however you'd spell it

But what these languages all have in common is there serious simplicity of grammer.

In japanese the difference between saying something and asking something is a single word (if I remember correctly its ka)
So:
Bastiaan des -> my name is bastiaan
Bastiaan des ka -> is your name bastiaan?
(I think its fully something like watashi wa bastiaan des or something similar, and then when you turn it into a question you need to use you instead of I offcourse )

In cantonese its also fun, when you ask something you basically give the two options
I want something -> ngor yieuw jat jek miauw
Do you want or not want something -> nee yieuw m yieuw jat jek miauw
(basically you want not want 1 cat, the jek is just something you place between the number and the object, dont ask em why, cantonese sometimes stuff words in their sentences )

I dont know about japanese but in cantonese you have no difference between he or she. Also you dont have any difference between single or multiple.
he/she has a cat -> keui jou jat jek miauw
he/she has two cats -> keui jou leung jek miauw
Here is somethign strange though, 2 is ji, but in this sentence you use leung for 2.. something to do with ji being a number and leung being an amount, awell..

There is also no difference in verbs
I have a cat -> ngor jou jat jek miauw
he has a cat -> keui jou jat jek miauw
you have a cat -> nee jou jat jek miauw

I'm not sure how that compares to japanese though and dont forget I'm just a beginner so I probably didn't make any sence to a cantonese person

I love asian language!

[JTA]

I think cat is "Neko" and not "Miauw"