What is the proper way to use 個?


If I were to say "one spring onion" would I say 一個ねぎ, 一個のねぎ, or ねぎを一個?

This is in the context of cooking, if that makes any difference.




Google can be a really useful tool for finding out about real-world usage for
small phrases like this. Just put the term in quotes to restrict your search
to exact matches and see what comes up. Bear in mind that there are tonnes of
machine translations and unskilled human translations online, so don't assume
something is grammatical/natural Japanese just because you get some hits.
You'd be looking to see hit numbers at least in the tens of thousands
including stuff from popular Japanese websites before you can conclude that.

You won't find much for ねぎ with 個 (0 hits for "一個のねぎ" and just 4 for "ねぎを一個").
This is because spring onions are long and thin, so they are counted with 本.

If you search for "ねぎを一本" you´ll see 160,000 hits, and tonnes of them from
recipes. This is most likely the form you are after, but bear in mind that the
particle depends on the context. "ねぎを一本炒める" for "fry one spring onion" but
"ねぎが一本ある" for "I have one spring onion". The form number + counter + の + noun
(as in "一本のネギ") is also grammatically correct, but it has more of a nuance of
"THE (only) spring onion", and won't come up as much in recipes. This is also
evidenced by a Google search where you'll see a lot of the results that come
up are from books and stories.

It's also worth pointing out that ネギ will often be written in katakana in
recipes. You could do some Googling yourself to find out how often each of the
forms are used.




Google can be a really useful tool for finding out about real-world usage for
small phrases like this. Just put the term in quotes to restrict your search
to exact matches and see what comes up. Bear in mind that there are tonnes of
machine translations and unskilled human translations online, so don't assume
something is grammatical/natural Japanese just because you get some hits.
You'd be looking to see hit numbers at least in the tens of thousands
including stuff from popular Japanese websites before you can conclude that.

You won't find much for ねぎ with 個 (0 hits for "一個のねぎ" and just 4 for "ねぎを一個").
This is because spring onions are long and thin, so they are counted with 本.

If you search for "ねぎを一本" you´ll see 160,000 hits, and tonnes of them from
recipes. This is most likely the form you are after, but bear in mind that the
particle depends on the context. "ねぎを一本炒める" for "fry one spring onion" but
"ねぎが一本ある" for "I have one spring onion". The form number + counter + の + noun
(as in "一本のネギ") is also grammatically correct, but it has more of a nuance of
"THE (only) spring onion", and won't come up as much in recipes. This is also
evidenced by a Google search where you'll see a lot of the results that come
up are from books and stories.

It's also worth pointing out that ネギ will often be written in katakana in
recipes. You could do some Googling yourself to find out how often each of the
forms are used.

