45 or 50 Things You Didn't Know About Japan and Didn't Even Know to Ask

[320x200]

I dunno, am I the only one who didn't really get much out of this presentation? It's not really that unusual to have different words for counting different objects. English has a trillion words for talking about groups of items too (a "flock" of birds, unless they're geese and then it's a "gaggle", etc etc. That doesn't really tell you anything about people who speak english...)

[AuditoryEden]

@320x200 It's a little bit different. If an American or English person has three coconuts, they have three coconuts. If they have three pencils as well, then they have three pencils and three coconuts. Whereas in Japan if you have three coconuts and three pencils you may have "san" coconuts and "mitsu" pencils, and yes, I'm aware that those aren't the actual words, it's an example. A "flock" or "gaggle" is a subject-specific collective noun. He's talking about numbers and suffixes.