Japanese Questions

Hi, I'm having trouble on Japanese Counters.
Would anyone teach me how to say
" one night, two nights, three nights ... until ten nights " in Japanese?
(counters)

also, for the word "kakera"
how do you count it in Japanese?
like one piece of kakera..
How do you say it in Japanese?

Please help me on these japanese counters and type everything in Romaji
Thank you very much !!

For nights: ("ban")
Hito-ban, futa-ban, mi-ban,... but not really beyond that.

For "night's stay" (for hotels, inns, travel itinierary): ("haku" that may change to "-paku" at times depending on what word it connects to)
I-ppaku, ni-haku, san-paku, yon-paku, go-haku, ro-ppaku, nana-haku, hachi-haku, kyu-haku, ju-ppaku.

For "kakera":
For one or two, you can say: hito-kakera, futa-kakera, combining the number and the word "kakera."
Or you can say: hitotsu, futatsu, mittsu, yottsu, etc.
"kakera ga hitotsu," "kakera ga futatsu," etc.

Here's the thing...

If you're a gaijin, and you don't mind sounding like a gaijin (but managing to communicate) just use the original Japanese system of counting (and not ichi, ni, etc. which, with counters, is a Chinese import). You know what I'm talking about -- hitotsu, futatsu, mitsu, yotsu, etc.

The Japanese counting system has the advantage that they don't take counters. All you have to do is remember the numbers from 1-10 and the number 20. (All other numbers have been taken over by the Chinese system), and you're good to go.

The drawback is that you don't sound incredibly intelligent using them. The Japanese people that use them are kids. But you do sound like what a Japanese person expects a gaijin to sound like when speaking Japanese, so it really isn't much of a drawback.

If communication is what you're aiming for, then using that is the best way to get across what you want to say.

The 2 counting systems are cardinal and ordinal. They also exist in English.

Example: one, two, three, etc. is cardinal.

First, second, third, etc. is ordinal (order).

Ichi, ni, san, etc. is cardinal. Hitotsu, futatsu, mitsu, etc. is ordinal.

Both are correct. Just depends on how you use it.

Sorry to the anonymous poster above, but that isn't quite true.

Both are cardinal numbering systems. One way to make ordinals is to add "me" to the cardinals. Such as:

mitsu-me = third.
sanbon-me = third book or cylindrical object.

However the idea that both will work is true.

Thank you for the Help guys
Hope you guys won't mind
here is another counter question that bothers me.

how to say " 1 litre "

Does anyone have sites that have good list of useful Japanese counters?

Hello, does anyone here know what the passive form of "aisuru" is?

Thank you

I am making a book on japanese.AND i need to learn all the words a-z.

To John,

"1 litre" would be "ichi rittoru." For units of measurements such as liters, milimeters, centimeters, meters, kilometers, grams, kilograms, tons, etc., you just say the number + the unit.

Some units of measurements:

liter = rittoru
centimeters = senchi meetoru
meters = meetoru
kilometers = kiro meetoru (at times "meetoru" may be omitted if it is obvious that you are talking about distances)
grams = guramu
kilograms = kiro guramu (at times "guramu" may be omitted if it is obvious that you are talking about weight)
tons = ton


To Max,
The passive form of "aisuru (to love)" is "aisareru (to be loved)."

Max,
To make "aisuru" (to love) passive, you change the "suru" to sareru. This applies to any "suru" verb, like shinpai-suru (to worry). To make shinpai-suru passive one would use shinpai-sareru. There are different rules for the other forms of verbs when it comes to making them passive.

two years later a new answer!