Hi, I have a language question regarding the kun’yomi reading for numbers. For context, I am not learning Japanese, but I practice karate and have an interest in some related phrases and terminologies.
When I look up information on the kun’yomi number readings I get readings that say “hito(tsu),” “futa(tsu),” “mit(tsu),” etc. My question is, why is the “tsu” portion in parentheses?
My assumption is that the numbers alone are “hito,” “futa,” “mi,” etc. and the “tsu” is the counter word. Like if I were to simply count upward (e.g. “ichi, ni, san”) the equivalent would be “hito, futa, mi”. Is this accurate?
2 comments
It’s a bit tricky. Etymologically, “tsu” would be considered a counter word (that’s why the traditional method of counting is “hi, fu, mi, yo, i, mu, na, ya, ko, to”) but in modern Japanese it’s not the case anymore (modern counting that uses kun readings is “hitotsu, futatsu,” etc., you can’t skip the “tsu” parts). The parentheses are only there to show the okurigana portion of the word.
Yes, your assumption is correct.
Usually, you use “hito, futa, mi…” with counters, and “ichi, ni, san…” in other cases, like months (ichigatsu, first month=January)