How to say "garlic", "garlic clove" and "garlic bulb" in Japanese?


I was thinking how I'd write a recipe in Japanese which uses 2 garlic cloves,
so I've put those terms on google translate and got the following results:

  * garlic: ニンニク
  * garlic clove: にんにく
  * garlic bulb: にんにく球根

The problem is that I see a lot of garlic bulbs when searching images for
"にんにく" and I also realize "ニンニク" and "にんにく" are pronounced the same, which
makes me think there's more to the way google is translating these terms,
could anyone confirm if these terms are correct? And how would you
differentiate between "garlic" and "garlic clove" in spoken Japanese?




If you mean you use those words in cooking, we rather say like:

  * にんにく一玉【ひとたま】 or 一房【ひとふさ】: "a ball/bunch of garlic" = "a garlic bulb"

  * にんにく一片【ひとかけ】: "a chip of garlic" = "a garlic clove"

In your case, "2 garlic cloves" will be にんにく二片【ふたかけ】.

Or if you refer to "a garlic bulb" in the context of gardening, then:

  * にんにく一株【ひとかぶ】 or 一本【いっぽん】: "a root of garlic"

球根 "bulb" is a word you use to specify that part of garlic in contrast to
other stalk or leaf etc. Usually the most useful part of the plant is the
bulb, so you don't need to add it explicitly. "Clove" doesn't have an everyday
noun as far as I know, but technically called 鱗片【りんぺん】.

にんにく and ニンニク are the same word, but [biological terms tend to be written in
katakana](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/20840/7810).

See also:

  * [数え方単位辞典: にんにく/ニンニク](https://www.sanabo.com/kazoekata/ct_na/ni/ninniku/)
  * [ニンニクのしくみ｜各部名称と特徴](https://%E3%83%8B%E3%83%B3%E3%83%8B%E3%82%AF%E6%A0%BD%E5%9F%B9.com/%E3%83%8B%E3%83%B3%E3%83%8B%E3%82%AF%E6%A0%BD%E5%9F%B9%E3%81%AE%E5%9F%BA%E6%9C%AC/%E3%83%8B%E3%83%B3%E3%83%8B%E3%82%AF%E3%81%AE%E3%81%97%E3%81%8F%E3%81%BF%EF%BD%9C%E5%90%84%E9%83%A8%E5%90%8D%E7%A7%B0%E3%81%A8%E7%89%B9%E5%BE%B4.html)

