一台、二台、五台、十台 and ..how many 台’s ?

Until recent spelling reform in Japanese about 60 years ago, they used 颱風, the first kanji of which just means “typhoon.” The 台 element is in there though, so it was chosen as a replacement when things were reformed, standardized, and simplified. Its meaning has nothing to do with the change, it was merely a simpler kanji with the same reading.

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颱. Why does it mean typhoon?

Why…? Why does any kanji mean what it means? I’m sure there’s a complicated history from ancient kanji to when it was used in Japanese, but I’m just telling you how they got to 台.

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I don’t imagine it is really a way of inflating the vocab count, but it is
boring and time consuming.

They wanted an example of counter and were not particularly interested in that kanji otherwise, I guess.
But you’re right.

Didn’t we have this discussion before somewhere in the forums? 台 actually doesn’t mean machine by itself at all (as in “the stupid 台 in the basement is broken again”), it is only used as a counter for machines. It’s one of the few instances where I think WK takes a too extreme shortcut.

Btw, the old form of 台 is ‘臺’, easy to see why people got tired of it. I vaguely remember that the same shape 台 was used for other simplifications in compounds as well, just for the extra confusion.

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But that kanji has both longcat and boobgrave, two of the best all-time radicals!

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sshhh , walls have ears :ear::ear:

A bunch ? What for ? Are we presumed stupid ? It’s a real bore two have to type answers to those questions. And it is so unnerving that sometimes you send the answer to that question or even to the next one with a typo and are sent back in the queue… to be asked for more of the same.

Discussion about the meaning and the uses of 台 are important but they do not answer a more basic problem with WK

No, it’s just that there’s a difference between knowing that something is regular and getting used to it. To know, you just need to read about it once. To get used you need to see and type it repeatedly. If it is a bit boring - that’s because we are boring deep into our memories so that the knowledge would stay there for a long time…

When you know something, you’d be like “just a moment, six machines would be, let me think… ah yes, 六台”
When you’re used to something, your memory will produce 「六台」 the moment you need it.

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Yes… How can you see regularity of an item without seeing how it functions in the usual irregular spots? You can’t assume anything from just one or two items.

Counting in Japanese is notoriously difficult. If you’ve mastered it, good for you. That’s not the assumption of the creators though.

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True believers eat only using :chopsticks:

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Yeeees yessss, goood idea. These hurt even moooore :hugs:

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Dear Pitiable Imbecile: I would like to see your calligraphy for that character. Perhaps when you see so simple a character you would escape boredom when you realize there is more to the spirit of shodou than rendering it as if you were holding a tire crayon in a fist. Try writing “saiji wo kiwameru wa kampei e no michi.” Whoops! There was that gross injection of personality in the way you rendered “michi.” You will see in your failure of detail that you are far from perfection even with “dai.” I will treasure your equally snotty reply.

can you please simplify some of this chunibyo knowledge filled reply so us mortals can understand too and Maybe even ascend to the upper realms?

Dear Tempura Yusa,
I thought my tongue was almost through my cheek when I wrote that. Maybe that could not be seen from the bleacher seats. If I get a bottle thrown from the “realms,” the club seats where the 60’s sit–well, there is so much sheer weight of mind to those guys, I will just slouch off. Cordially.

now it’s the same with 百。 二百,三百, 四百。。。really not sure it is necessary. It’s all about the same, very simple, 9-10 kanji. One should be allowed to bypass series like that (of course not the 日 or つ kind of stuff)

actually 百 series has three unique cases, readings for 三百(さんびやく)、六百(ろっぴゃく) and 八百(はっぴゃく)are different.

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The argument for not reviewing 台 over and over was that it’s regular, so there’s no reason to keep reviewing it. I disagree with that, but that was the argument.

百 on the other hand, has a bunch of irregular items. I don’t see how this is different from 日 or つ in that regard.

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The fuck? Did you reset your account level?

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