Japanese has common nouns, collective nouns, proper nouns, material noun and abstract nouns in the idea as well as English. However, they do not have to be distinguished as a point of the grammar, because Japanese has no number inflection of nouns. Only as for proper nouns, the orthography of Japanese Romanization requests to uses a capital letter at the first letter of them just as well as English orthography. Meanwhile, Japanese has two types of nouns, which are grammatically unique to ordinary nouns. They have two behaviors of parts of speech. One has adjectival and nominal behaviors. It is called Adjectival Nouns. The other has verbal and nominal behaviors. It is called Verbal Nouns. They are usually loan words from ancient Chinese and modern English. They substitute for verbs and adjectival Verbs, by accompanying special auxiliary verbs.
Ordinary nouns are Japanese typical nouns. They have no inflection of numbers. They can perform a subject or an object in a sentence. They can also perform a possessive part.
Dèsuku, kyàbinetto are ordinary nouns in the following tables.
| English | Japanese | Japanese Kana |
|---|---|---|
| a desk desks the desk the desks | dèsuku (*1) | デスク |
| my desk my desks | wátashi no dèsuku | わたしの デスク |
| his desk's cabinet a cabinet of his desk | kàre no dèsuku no kyàbinetto | かれの デスクの キャビネット |
Adjectival nouns are the nearest part of speech to English adjectives, except they need a particle to modify nouns. Indeed, if an adjectival noun is a loan word form English, the original English word is also an adjective generally. The difference between adjectival nouns and ordinary nouns is that adjectival nouns are not modified by nouns with particle "no". They do not modify nouns with particle "no", either. They use particle "na" to modify nouns. Of course a few of adjectival nouns have an exceptional behaviors that they can modified nouns and be modified by nouns with "no".
Púràiveito, pàburikku are adjectival nouns in the following tables.
| English | Japanese | Japanese Kana |
|---|---|---|
| a private document | púràiveito na dòkyumento | プライヴェイトな ドキュメント |
| a public document | pàburikku na dòkyumento | パブリックな ドキュメント |
| my public document the public document of mine | wátashi no pàburikku na dòkyumento (*1) | わたしの パブリックな ドキュメント |
Verbal nouns generally express actions and motions. and have the same characters as ordinary nouns. They modify nouns with particle "no", they are modified with particle "no". Besides these characteristics, verbal nouns have the parts of characteristics which verbs have, although they do no have any conjugation as verbs have. They behave like verbs, followed by verb "suru". This chapter introduces two behaviors of verbal nouns. although those may be regarded as advanced usages for beginners. Those are very unique behaviors which nouns and verbs do not have.
Púrèi is a verbal noun in the following tables.
| English | Japanese | Japanese Kana |
|---|---|---|
| play of tennis | tènisu no púrèi | テニスの プレイ |
| our play of tennis | wátashì-tachi no tènisu no púrèi | わたしたちの テニスの プレイ |
| English | Japanese | Japanese Kana | |
|---|---|---|---|
| before | before play of tennis | tènisu no púrei-màe | テニスの プレイまえ |
| before playing tennis | tènisu 'o púrei-màe | テニスを プレイまえ | |
| during | during play of tennis | tènisu no púrei-chuu | テニスの プレイちゅう |
| during playing tennis | tènisu 'o púrei-chuu | テニスを プレイちゅう | |
| after | after play of tennis | tènisu no púrei-gò | テニスの プレイご |
| after playing tennis | tènisu 'o púrei-gò | テニスを プレイご |
| English | Japanese | Japanese Kana | |
|---|---|---|---|
| before | before our play of tennis | wátashì-tachi no tènisu no púrei-màe | わたしたちの テニスの プレイまえ |
| before our playing tennis | wátashì-tachi ga tènisu 'o púrei-màe | わたしたちが テニスを プレイまえ | |
| during | during our play of tennis | wátashì-tachi no tènisu no púrei-chuu | わたしたちの テニスの プレイちゅう |
| during our playing tennis | wátashì-tachi ga tènisu 'o púrei-chuu | わたしたちが テニスを プレイちゅう | |
| after | after our play of tennis | wátashì-tachi no tènisu no púrei-gò | わたしたちの テニスの プレイご |
| after our playing tennis | wátashì-tachi ga tènisu 'o púrei-gò | わたしたちが テニスを プレイご |
You can never say "wátashì-tachi ga tènisu 'o púrei" itself in the correct grammar. However, you can say
On the other hand, you can never say "wátashì-tachi no tènisu no púrei-suru" in the correct grammar. However, you can say
Japanese have rich combinations of numerals and classifiers. This correct usage sometimes bothers even native speakers of Japanese. In my opinion this rich combinations are sometimes harmful and fruitless, while the rich combinations of verbal conjugation are fruitful to express subtle ideas. Using classifiers properly is a measure of cultural knowledge among Japanese, although it contains many meaningless expressions to inform an event correctly. so a beginner of Japanese does not have to do it correctly. This chapter introduces the minimum information about numerals and classifiers. If I have a chance to arrange them, I may write an additional document about them in future.
Base numbers consist of logical and plain combinations except a few sound changes. There is no special name for 11, 12, 20 as in English or in French. All combinations follow the decimal counter perfectly. Of course, there are other ways to count numbers. However, these ways are not in general but idiomatic usages.
| English | Japanese | Kana | Comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | zero | rèi | れい | |
| 1 | one | íchi | いち | (*2) |
| 2 | two | nì | に | |
| 3 | three | sàn | さん | (*2) |
| 4 | four | yòn | よん | (*1) |
| 5 | five | gò | ご | |
| 6 | six | ròku | ろく | (*2) |
| 7 | seven | nàna | なな | (*1) |
| 8 | eight | hàchi | はち | (*2) |
| 9 | nine | kyùu | きゅう | (*1) |
| 10 | ten | jùu | じゅう | (*2) |
| 100 | one hundred | hyákù | ひゃく | (*2) |
| 1,000 | one thousand | sèn | せん | (*2) |
| 10,000 | ten thousand | íchi-màn | いちまん | |
| 100,000,000 | one hundred million | íchì-oku | いちおく | |
| 1,000,000,000,000 | one trillion | ìt-chou | いっちょう | (*2) |
Classifiers are one of the most annoying features of Japanese. You have to remember thousands of combinations with counted things and counting classifiers idiomatically. There is no other way but memorizing more than one hundred classifiers in order to compose Japanese expressions related to numbers exactly. This way is impossible even for native speakers of Japanese to perform perfectly, to tell the truth. The chapter picks up 3 classifiers. I hope these 3 classifiers cover more than 90% expressions conveniently in order to count objects.
| people | animate objects | inanimate objects, things | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Japanese | Kana | Japanese | Kana | Japanese | Kana | |
| 1 | íchì-nin (*1) | いちにん | ìp-piki | いっぴき | ìk-ko | いっこ |
| 2 | nì-nin (*1) | ににん | nì-hiki | にひき | nì-ko | にこ |
| 3 | sán-nìn | さんにん | sàn-biki | さんびき | sàn-ko | さんこ |
| 4 | yó-nìn | よにん | yòn-hiki | よんひき | yòn-ko | よんこ |
| 5 | gó-nìn | ごにん | gò-hiki | ごひき | gò-ko | ごこ |
| 6 | rókù-nin | ろくにん | ròp-piki | ろっぴき | ròk-ko | ろっこ |
| 7 | nánà-nin | ななにん | nánà-hiki | ななひき | nánà-ko | ななこ |
| 8 | háchì-nin | はちにん | hàp-piki | はっぴき | hàk-ko | はっこ |
| 9 | kyùu-nin | きゅうにん | kyùu-hiki | きゅうひき | kyùu-ko | きゅうこ |
| 10 | jùu-nin | じゅうにん | jìp-piki | じっぴき | jìk-ko | じっこ |
| 100 | hyákù-nin | ひゃくにん | hyàp-piki | ひゃっぴき | hyàk-ko | ひゃっこ |
| 1,000 | sèn-nin | せんにん | sèn-biki | せんびき | sèn-ko | せんこ |
| 10,000 | íchi-man-nin | いちまんにん | íchi-man-biki | いちまんびき | íchi-man-ko | いちまんこ |
In order to express ordinal numbers, you have only to add suffix "-me" after classifiers.