In Japanese counting system, there is a counting system for small animals i.e. goldfish, hamsters, cats or dogs etc. On today’s lesson lets look at them.
Quantity | Hiragana Reading | Kanji |
---|---|---|
1 | いっぴき ippiki | 一匹 |
2 | にひき nihiki | 二匹 |
3 | さんびき sanbiki | 三匹 |
4 | よんひき yonhiki | 四匹 |
5 | ごひき gohiki | 五匹 |
6 | ろっぴき roppiki | 六匹 |
7 | ななひき nanahiki | 七匹 |
8 | はっぴき happiki | 八匹 |
9 | きゅうひき kyuuhiki | 九匹 |
10 | じゅっぴき juppiki | 十匹 |
11 | じゅういっぴき juuippiki | 十一匹 |
12 | じゅうにひき juunihiki | 十二匹 |
13 | じゅうさんびき juusanbiki | 十三匹 |
14 | じゅうよんひき juuyonhiki | 十四匹 |
15 | じゅうごひき juugohiki | 十五匹 |
16 | じゅうろっぴき juuroppiki | 十六匹 |
17 | じゅうななひき juunanahiki | 十七匹 |
18 | じゅうはっぴき juuhappiki | 十八匹 |
19 | じゅうきゅうひき juukyuuhiki | 十九匹 |
20 | にじゅっぴき nijuppiki | 二十匹 |
Note that, above counting method is only for small animals such as cats, dogs, small fishes, hamsters etc., however, there are exceptions i.e. Rabbits, birds, bats etc are counted using different counting method: わ (wa) – 羽.
For large animals such as cows, horses, deer, tigers etc, the counting method is done by とう (tou) – 頭.
Hope this lesson helped you understanding Japanese counting system for small animals. Try to use them whenever you have the chances.