Numbers and Counters


I am still in a very early stage in learning Japanese, and just I have just
learnt some numbers and my first counter words, such as the ones for telling
time and `まい`.

Do you ever use "regular" numbers (`いち, に, さん`, etc.) for anything or are they
always modified (`ひとつ, ふたつ, みっつ`, etc.) or followed by some counter?

I still don't know any kanji; that is why I use kana, and I hope you can
provide kana in your replies as well.




This isn't a dumb question at all! For the most part, you do have to modify
the number, you can't just say it by itself. You can't ask for just two
bottles of beer, you have to add the counter (ほん) or use `ふたつ`.

One scenario where you can just use the numbers is if you're just counting for
the sake of counting. Like, for example, you're counting jumping jacks as you
do them you'd go "いち！に！さん！し！．．．．" and so on. Or, if you're trying to count how
many people there are in a room, you might say just the numbers in your head
or out loud. In the end however, you need to use the counter (にん) if you
wanted to tell someone the total.




This isn't a dumb question at all! For the most part, you do have to modify
the number, you can't just say it by itself. You can't ask for just two
bottles of beer, you have to add the counter (ほん) or use `ふたつ`.

One scenario where you can just use the numbers is if you're just counting for
the sake of counting. Like, for example, you're counting jumping jacks as you
do them you'd go "いち！に！さん！し！．．．．" and so on. Or, if you're trying to count how
many people there are in a room, you might say just the numbers in your head
or out loud. In the end however, you need to use the counter (にん) if you
wanted to tell someone the total.

