Inflection and conjugation Japanese nouns have no grammatical number, gender or article aspect. The noun hon () may refer to a single book or several books; hito () can mean "person" or "people", and ki () can be "tree" or "trees". Where number is important, it can be indicated by providing a quantity (often with a counter word) or (rarely) by adding a suffix, or sometimes by duplication (e.g. , hitobito, usually written with an iteration mark as ). Words for people are usually understood as singular. Thus Tanaka-san usually means Mx Tanaka. Words that refer to people and animals can be made to indicate a group of individuals through the addition of a collective suffix (a noun suffix that indicates a group), such as -tachi, but this is not a true plural: the meaning is closer to the English phrase "and company". A group described as Tanaka-san-tachi may include people not named Tanaka. Some Japanese nouns are effectively plural, such as hitobito "people" and wareware "we/us", while the word tomodachi "friend" is considered singular, although plural in form.
Inflection and conjugation Japanese nouns have no grammatical number gender or article aspect The noun hon () may refer to a single book or several books; hito () can mean "person" or "people" and ki () can be "tree" or "trees" Where number is important it can be indicated by providing a quantity (often with a counter word) or (rarely) by adding a suffix or sometimes by duplication (eg  hitobito usually written with an iteration mark as ) Words for people are usually understood as singular Thus Tanaka-san usually means Mx Tanaka Words that refer to people and animals can be made to indicate a group of individuals through the addition of a collective suffix (a noun suffix that indicates a group) such as -tachi but this is not a true plural the meaning is closer to the English phrase "and company" A group described as Tanaka-san-tachi may include people not named Tanaka Some Japanese nouns are effectively plural such as hitobito "people" and wareware "we/us" while the word tomodachi "friend" is considered singular although plural in form