Ten Things

So I noticed the Wani Kani Lessons have “one thing” through “nine things” (一つ ~ 九つ)

why is there no “ten things?” 十つ ??

Is it simply じゅうつ?

Thanks!

1 Like

Actually the reading for ten things (十) is (とお). I think the reason why it is not included is because there is no way to distinguish between the kanji for the normal 10 and 10 things apart. The counter for things, from my knowledge, does not apply to numbers after ten, and ten itself does not have つ in it.

Link for thing counters by the way:

Counters are one of those things that should be studied outside WaniKani by the way. That way you can keep track of all the different ones out there. Imabi is a good resource for that in my opinion.

4 Likes

Also, I highly recommend HouHou for learning information like counters and their readings. It’s has WaniKani’s format just without the mnemonics. That’s how you can review the counter ten/ other non-WaniKani items as if it were on WaniKani

6 Likes

In short, without going into the very long explanation. Using the つ counter above 9 is very rare. (Aside from some words like 十日 you are unlikely to be hearing とお almost ever) That’s nothing grammatically forbidding it, they’re just not used.

1 Like

Just to clarify, does the counter for things after ten follow number + つ or just the number. I can’t seem to recall fully.

You would just use the number. Generally, the つ counter uses the Japanese numbering system. Aside from some special cases such as 二十日 or 二十歳 you will very rarely see the Japanese system over the number 10.

Also in generally, larger numbers are more likely to drop the counter.

2 Likes

Thank you! I will definitely check out Imabi and HouHou

That makes sense. Thank you so much :slight_smile:

This topic was automatically closed 365 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.