I need some help with grammar. I just learned that for “a few” you use “ni, san ___” I am having trouble with the order of the sentence. If I want to say “I am going to see a few friends”, I believe I would say “tomodachi ni san nin ni aimasu”, though I feel like I am getting the word order incorrect? I am a beginner and appreciate responses in Romanji since I am still learning to write. Thanks in advance!
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ni,san nin no tomodachi ni aimasu
or
tomodachi ni,san nin ni aimasu
or just plain
tomodachi ni aimasu
because you don’t have to specify number unless it’s really important
as an aside:
ni, san – means “2 or 3”
suu – means “a few”
suujikan – a few hours, suufun – a few minutes, suunin – a few people
The problem with this sentence is that the way counters work with nouns is either numeral + counter + の(no) + noun or noun + (が/を)(ga/wo) + numeral + counter.
In this case the particle is に(ni), so you can only use the first pattern, nisan nin no tomodachi ni aimasu.
A side note would be that this is literally equivalent to “I’m going to see two or three friends.” Which means the same thing as “I’m going to see a few friends,” but I feel like just omitting the number all together and saying “tomodachi ni aimasu” is probably more common. After all there’s not really a need to specify how many friends unless you’re trying to emphasize that it’s more than one.
A final side note, it’s rōmaji not romanji, because the Japanese word for Rome is rōma. Idk why so many people put the n in there. Probably because the adjective form in English is roman and Roma isn’t the English word for Rome.