The second book that I’ve got from the library is a デコボコえほん (bumpy picture book) called かずをかぞえよう！ (Count the Numbers!) It was originally written in French by Xavier Deneux but of course I’m reading it in Japanese, so his name is officially: グザビエ・ドゥヌ.
One thing to be aware of, is that in Japanese, there are different “counters” for different types of objects. We see this to a certain extent in English in that we might say a pair of socks, or a couple of people, or two raisins. This is more regulated in Japanese… you’ll use counters for:
| Counter | When to Use |
|---|---|
| 円 「えん」 | To count Japanese currency |
| 分 「ふん」 | To count minutes |
| 杯 「はい」 | To count beverages |
| 匹 「ひき」 | To count animals |
| 本 「ほん」 | To count long, cylindrical objects such as pencils |
| ヶ所（箇所） 「か・しょ」 | To count locations |
| 回 「かい」 | To count number of times something has happened |
| 個 「こ」 | To count small, round objects |
| 枚 「まい」 | To count flat objects such as sheets of paper |
| 人 「にん」 | To count people |
| 歳／才 「さい」 | To count years-old |
| 冊 「さつ」 | To count books and magazines |
Basically, Japanese people like to be pedantic when it comes to counting. Tae Kim’s site has some more information on Counters here. And a full list of counters is on Wikipedia.
Now the last book I tried, was much better received with the kid. I’m not sure if it’s because it’s onomatopoeia or if it’s because the illustrations tell a story of something happening… but he loves it. Giggles when I make the sounds, and continuously wants to find the page with the bear drinking so he can point to the flower on it’s nose. This book? Not doing it for him. To be honest, we’ve tried some counting books in English, French, and now Japanese, and he consistently doesn’t have an interest in them. I guess this one did me more good than him.
Vocabulary
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こども － child
が － the が particle indicates the subject of a sentence (similar to は) when it is new information for the listener or when the subject is emphasized.
ひどり － one (person)
タイヤ － tire
ふたつ － generic counter for two
かたつむり － snail
さんびき － three small animals
あわ － bubble
よっつ － generic counter for four (I’m a little confused, as I would have assumed that よんこ would be used here as it’s a counter for small round objects…
もよう － pattern
いつつ － generic counter for five
はなびら － flower petal
ろくまい － counter for six flat objects
ねじ － screw
ななつ － generic counter for seven
ひよに － baby bird / chick
はちわ － counter for eight birds or rabbits
ふどうのつぶ － individual grapes
ここのつ － generic counter for nine
ボール － ball
じゅっに － ten small round objects