I’ve been comfortable with Japanese for years, but while reading Haruki Murakami’s Kafka on the Shore recently, I ran into something that I’m not what it’s supposed to sound like.
At various points in the book a character will say 「２，３つ。。。」to mean something like “two, three things” and I’ve just realized I have no idea how to read this. Would it be「 に、みつ」or 「ふっ、みつ」or possibly some other way that I’m not even thinking of? I’ve Googled around in both Japanese and English with no luck and I haven’t found any examples of people saying this in video or audio formats either.
I assume whatever pattern is used here is used for all other counter words as well, yeah?
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Though I’ve not read Kafka on the Shore, I believe it’s supposed to read ふたつ、みっつ, where “つ” for “2” is just omitted.
An example I found on a Google search: 「…主食が6〜8つ、副菜6～7つ、主菜4～6つ、牛乳・乳製品2～3つ、果物2～3つといった具合です。」
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