japenese 1-10

[nago]

Here in Okinawa a 4th degree is "yondan" and a 7th degree is a "nanadan"

i have never heard the terms shidan or shichidan ever used in my time here. of course i have only lived the last 19 years of my life here.

both shi/yon and shichi/nana are used about the same throughout normal conversation. the are specific times when each is used in lue of the other.

[24fightingchickens]

Here in Okinawa a 4th degree is "yondan" and a 7th degree is a "nanadan"

i have never heard the terms shidan or shichidan ever used in my time here. of course i have only lived the last 19 years of my life here.

both shi/yon and shichi/nana are used about the same throughout normal conversation. the are specific times when each is used in lue of the other.

We are not discussing the counting of things - we are discussing naming numbers from one to ten.

For those who don't know...

When you are simply naming numbers to count, such as counting numbers from one to ten as people step across the floor, the onyomi are the preferred way, and some Japanese will flip around the shi/yon and shichi/nana as they do this.

What you are talking about is using numbers as "counters", which is peculiarity of the Japanese language. When you are counting things, rather than simply naming numbers, we use the kunyomi.

For example, if a couple of kids are competing to see who can stand on his head the longest, they might count the seconds ichi, ni, san, shi, go, roku, shichi, hachi, ku...

But if you ask one of them how many boxes he sees, he will answer "yotsu."

Depending on the counter word you put after the number, you might or might not use kunyomi or onyomi. They must be memorized, unfortunately.

The counter for chopsticks is zen. Izzen, nizen, sanzen, yonzen, gozen, etc...

The counter for machines is dai. Ichidai, nidai, sandai, yondai, godai

Note that when counting things using a counter word, like dan ranks using dan, the shi word tends to flip over to the kunyomi.

Dans are counted a little differently because sho means "first" - it is the kanji for "begin" - like beginning dan. The rest count using onyomi mixed with kunyomi.

The most popular counter is "tsu" for smalling loaf-of-bread sized things. hitotsu, futatsu, mitsu, yotsu, itsutsu, etc, which uses pure kunyomi.

Counters are a total pain. You have to learn different counters for all sorts of different things. Long cylinders are hon. People are nin. There are lots of others.