nihongo wo benkyou shitai

If I had to pick one thing that is always causing me problems then it would be knowing which counter to use for a given item. This post will be an ongoing attempt to list which counters are used for which item. I'll add it as a sticky post and populate it as time goes on.

It is possible to use both naturalised Japanese numbers (一つ、二つ、三つ etc.) or the imported Chinese numbering system.

The Japanese numbering system is nice and easy; the syntax being:

[noun][particle][number][verb]

The particle used is dictated by the verbal component. Note, however, the use of naturalised numbers is limited to counting up to 10 items. After that you will need to use the imported system. Also, from talking to Japanese friends, even for counting less than 10 of something it is usual to use the imported system.

Using the imported numbering system is more complex in that you need to specify a counter along with the quantity, although the syntax is pretty straight-forward:

[noun][particle][number][item counter][verb]

Again, the particle is dictated by the verbal component, whilst the item counter is dependent on the item (see below).

漢字	カナ	Item
頭	とう	animal, large
匹	ひき	animals, small
袋	ふくろ	bags of things (crisps, sweets, etc)
床	しょう	beds
羽	わ	birds
冊	さつ	books
本	ほん	bottles
箱	はこ	boxes, boxfuls
束	たば	bunches of something
台	だい	cars
脚	きゃく	chairs
課	か	chapters of a book
字	じ	characters (letters)
枚	まい	clothing (articles of)
ヶ国	かこく	countries
品	しな	courses (of a meal)
杯	はい	cups (containing a liquid)
脚	きゃく	desks
通	つう	documents
通	つう	emails
話	わ	episodes of TV series
本	ほん	films (movies)
匹	ひき	fish
階	かい	floors (of a building)
輪	りん	flowers, individual (also see bunches counter)
杯	はい	glasses (containing a liquid)
丁	ちょう	guns
台	だい	household appliances
匹	ひき	insects
字	じ	kana
字	じ	kanji
丁	ちょう	leaves
課	か	lessons
通	つう	letters (as in something you write to someone)
丁	ちょう	levers
台	だい	machines
冊	さつ	magazines
台	だい	mechanical devices
泊	はく	nights of a stay (somewhere)
回	かい	occurances (number of times)
枚	まい	paper (sheets of)
人	にん	people
名	めい	people (more formal than 人)
枚	まい	photographs
問	もん	questions
丁	ちょう	servings in a restaurant
段	だん	steps (in a staircase)
話	わ	stories
本	ほん	telephone calls
枚	まい	thin, flat objects
枚	まい	tickets
丁	ちょう	tools
本	ほん	trees
輪	りん	wheels

日本語：	[subject] は [recipient] に [verb (base 6)] くれる
English:	Someone does something for you...

First off, the title to this entry isn't particularly accurate, but as I can't think of a better one, it'll have to do. The reason that it isn't accurate has already been mentioned when talking about くれる as well as ーてあげる and あげる and stems from the fact that くれる is used to indicate that something is being given in your direction. Whilst this obviously means given to you, it can also mean that something is given to someone close to you. Likewise with ーてくれる in that this means that some action is performed for you or someone close to you.

Now, I've recently been talking to Matt about this and we've had a bit of a problem understanding when you actually use this conjugation. However, thanks to a Japanese friend, it appears that there are some guidelines. Maybe an example will help.

マットくんがビールを買った。

How would you translate this into English? Odds-on you came up with Matt bought [me] some beer. A nice, straightforward statement of fact. But if we do this:

マットくんがビールを買ってくれた。

Then we would translate this as Matt bought [me] some beer and I appreciate it. I've seen some textbooks translate this as "as a favour", but I think my Japanese friend's explanation is better ('cos it sounds nicer!) Yes, it would seem that てくれる can be used to add a positive emotional context into a statement of fact showing that you somehow benefited from the action.

English:	My boss lent me his Aston Martin DBS
Jenglish:	[boss][Aston Martin DBS][lent + appreciation]
日本語：	上司がアストンマティーンデーベーエスを貸してくれた。

English:	I was sent a signed photo of Manami Honjou.
Jenglish:	[Honjou][Manami][signed][photo][sent + appreciation]
日本語：	本上まなみのサインの写真を送ってくれた。

The theory seems sound. インターネットに調べよう！

Example 1:

Well, most people know I'm a geek so let's not disappoint. Taken from this web site it appears to be about an interview with Bill Gates.

日本語：	ゲイツ氏はXboxやWindows Liveを含む、マイクロソフトが他社を追い上げようとしているいくつかの分野について語ってくれた
Jenglish:	[Gates][Mr] [SM] [Xbox] [Windows Live] [OM] [include] [Microsoft] [TM] [other company] [OM] [put pressure on (volitional - be about to)] [a few] [PM] [fields] [about] [spoke + favour]

Well, there were a lot of guesses here. For example 分野 can be translated as 'division' or 'branch' as well as 'field' or 'sphere'. Originally I went for division as it seemed to make sense when talking about a large company, but I swapped over to 'field' in the end as it seemed a better fit. Also the 追い上げようとして threw me for about 20 minutes. The よう indicated it's a volitional (covered soon!) which translated 追い上げよう as 'let's put pressure on' - it just didn't make sense. Quite by accident I found that you can use volitional form with とする to mean 'about to...'. The マイクロソフトが confused me as I couldn't find a convenient place to put this in my translation. In despair I read my blog entry on が and wondered if I could be looking at a relative clause here.

やっと、僕の訳文は「Mr. Gates kindly spoke about a few of the fields that Microsoft are about to put pressure on other companies to include in Xbox and Windows Live.」

Example 2:

Well, I've never thought about the idea of Japanese cheerleaders (honest!), but I found an example (of the grammar point and the cheerleaders) here.

日本語：	セレモニーでのパフォーマンス、そしてジュニアクリニックを2回おこない、クリニックにはたくさんの子供達が参加してくりました！
Jenglish:	[ceremony][LP][PP][performance][and then][junior][clinic][IM][2 times][conduct][clinic][DP][TM][lot][PM][children][SM][particiption][did]

This was easier than I thought, though that doesn't mean that I got it right! I've had to play with it a bit to make it more natural. There was a performance at the ceremony followed by two junior clinics. A lot of children participated in the clinics.

またね・・・

日本語：	[giver] は [receiver] に [noun clause] をくれる
日本語：	[giver] は [receiver] に [noun clause] をくださる
English:	[giver] gave [noun clause] to [receiver]

We recently looked at how the verbs あげる, さしあげる and やる can be used to express the concept of giving an item to someone or, with the ーて conjugation, the concept of doing something for someone. We made the point that these are only used when the act is preformed away from the speaker. Today we will look at what is effectively the opposite of this, くれる and it's honourific counterpart くださる.

Although the grammatical structure is the same as あげる, くれる is used when the act of giving is performed toward the speaker and as such, the sentence is from the receiver's point of view. With くれる sentences, the receiver can be I or we.

It is worth emphasising that くれる in this context means to give. If you want to say that someone receives something then you should use もらう. I don't know which one is used more frequently - my guess is that as the Japanese are big fans of passive grammar, maybe もらう, but I don't know. If/when I find out, I'll update this entry.

English:	My friends gave me a book on DIY.
Jenglish:	[friends][me][diy][about][book][gave]
日本語：	友達は私に日曜大工について本をくれた。
日本語：	友達は日曜大樹について本をくれた。

I wrote the Japanese twice as the second sentence seems more common - dropping the receiver if it is clear from the context of the sentence.

English:	Because I am taking an exam soon, my work colleagues gave me a card.
Jenglish:	[exam][soon][take][because][work colleagues][good luck card][gave]
日本語：	試験をすぐに受けるから同僚はグッドラックカードをくれた。

Times to scour the Internet! Actually this was a difficult search: Google came up with ーてくれる more frequently than plain old くれる sentences. Maybe that means something...

Example 1:

Taken from here this appears to be an interesting interview for all you anime fans.

日本語：	素敵な出会いをくれた映画　倍賞千恵子さんに聞く
Jenglish:	[fantastic][meeting][receive][film][Baisyou][Chieko][to][listen]

Well, my best guess is The film that received a great reception - listen to Chieko Baisyou.

Example 2:

Here's another one from a blog's title here.

日本語：	考える時間をくれた初めての大きなケガ
Jenglish:	[think][time][give (to me)][for the first time][big][hurt]

I've spent a bit of time pondering this one, mainly due to the fact that the literal translation just doesn't make sense. Also, the subject and indirect object have been left out which added to my confusion. So, I've come up with It hurt a lot the first time I got time to think

またね・・・

今日は今年の一番のロマンチックな日です。職場で同僚は彼氏にこのプレゼントをもらた。

またね・・・

日本語：	[subject] は [recipient] に [verb (base 6)] あげる
English:	To do something for someone...

Last time we looked at the use of あげる to convey the act of giving an item to someone. We also made the point that あげる is used when the giving is performed by the subject of the sentence and the sentence is written from the subject point-of-view. Essentially, the direction of giving was away from the subject. Well, today we'll look at how the ーて form can be used to convey the act performing some action for someone else. In other words, today is all about doing a favour for someone!

If you've read the blog entry for あげる, there isn't really much to add here, other than あげる follows the action verb conjugated to base 6. The polite version is ーてさしあげる and as with さしあげる it's used when talking about superiors.

English:	I wanted to buy some chocolate for my friend.
Jenglish:	[friend][for][chocolate][buy + want + favour]
日本語：	友達にはチョコレートを買いたくてあげた。

English:	I explained to the customer how to upgrade the software.
Jenglish:	[customer][to][software][upgrade + how to][explain + favour]
日本語：	取引先にソフトウェアをアップグレードし方のを説明してあげた。

OK. Let's scour the net for real-world examples!

Example 1:

This first example is taken from http://detail.chiebukuro.yahoo.co.jp/qa/question_detail.php?qid=1210310692

日本語：	とりあえず相手を見て、返ってこない覚悟で1,000円貸してあげるかな。
Jenglish:	[first of all][other party][see],[not return][resolution][because][1000 yen][lend + favour][I wonder]

This looked such a simple sentence before I tried to translate it, but the 返ってこない覚悟で completely threw me. So after a couple of hours (honestly!) I'm translating it as First of all I would look at the other person and wonder should I lend them 1000 yen, will the favour not be returned.

Example 2:

This example was taken from http://japan.alibaba.com/manufacture/5048345.html

日本語：	必要なパソコン言語でソフトウェアを開発してあげます。
Jenglish:	[necessary][PC][language][because][software][to develop + favour]

Well, I would translate this as Because of essential PC terminology, we have developed this software.

またね・・・

はい！イギリスでやっと雪が降ってる。職場へ運転はたいていあまり霊感を与えないけど今日は・・・今日は運転するのは楽しかった。

世界は白くなりました。職場へ運転してる時、下の写真を撮った。


この木は綺麗だと思う。　

日本語：	[giver]は[receiver]に[noun clause]をやる
日本語：	[giver]は[receiver]に[noun clause]をあげる
日本語：	[giver]は[receiver]に[noun clause]をさしあげる
English:	[giver] gave [noun clause] to [receiver]

Today's blog is the first of a series about the surprisingly complex art of giving and receiving in Japanese. From reading around a fair bit on the topic, the reason I have such big problems understanding this is that giving and receiving is such a fundamental part of Japanese culture and psychology, that without understanding the latter, I'm not going to truly understand the former.

Giving can fundamentally be in two directions: toward me (the speaker) or away from me. The whole notion of 'away from the speaker' becomes more complex when the speaker is not the giver, but conventional wisdom suggests that in such circumstances, the act of giving is being performed away from the giver's point of view and that the speaker associates more strongly with the giver. Anyway, here are the three verbs you'll come across:

• やる
  
  やる is the verb meaning to do, but in this context it is used to signify the act of giving down to someone or something. Since the Japanese culture frowns upon the idea of looking down on someone, even if you are doing that person a favour, this use of the verb is usually reserved for when talking about giving to animals.
  
  
• あげる
  
  あげる is probably the most frequently seen verb when talking about giving away from the speaker. あげる means to raise up and here implies that the speaker is humbling themselves with respect to the receiver. Generally あげる is used when both giver and receiver are close in social status.
  
  
• さしあげる
  
  さしあげる is the honourific form and is used when the receiver is of higher social status than the giver.
  

There is another verb in common usage meaning to give, although it is not part of the JLPT3 specification. The verb 渡す is functionally equivalent to あげる and can be translated as to hand over or to pass over. When to use each is unclear, but I think that 渡す can be used when simply stating that something was given, without any implication of emotion.

NOTE: When using やる、あげる and さしあげる the receiver cannot be either of the personal pronouns I or we. If you want to say that you received something, then you need to use the verb くれる which is discussed in the next blog entry.

English:	I gave the book to the librarian.
Jenglish:	[I][librarian][book][gave]
日本語：	私は図書館員に本をあげた。

English:	My friend gave his girlfriend a ring.
Jenglish:	[my friend][girlfriend][ring][gave]
日本語：	私の友人は彼女に指輪をあげました。

English:	My friend said she'll give her boyfriend chocolates on Valentine's Day.
Jenglish:	[my friend][boyfriend][Valentine's Day][chocolates][give][said]
日本語：	僕の友人は彼氏にバレンタインデーにチョコをあげると言っていた。

And here are some examples of actual usage, courtesy of Google...

Example 1:

This first example was found on http://ikimono.ciao.jp/otama/otamanikki1.html

日本語：	今日はおたまじゃくしにえさとして、キュウリをあげました。
Jenglish:	[today][SM][tadpole][to][feed][as for][cucumber][gave]

Well, my best guess would be In feeding the tadpoles today, I gave them cucumber

Example 2:

Here's one from http://scrapbook.ameba.jp/xmaspresent_book/

日本語：	クリスマスプレゼントなにを貰った？なにをあげた？
Jenglish:	[Christmas][present][what][received]?[what][gave]?

OK, again pretty straightforward, and it shows that you don't have to stick to the format given at the top of this blog entry. I reckon it translates to What Christmas presents did you receive? What did you give?

またね・・・