dochira wrote:

I think it depends on the consonant that precedes it: For example, hyaku (100). 200 = nihyaku 300 = sanbyaku or sambyaku 400 = yonhyaku ... 800 = happyaku

Yes, there's a rule for it. I learned it in japanese class also.

niko2x wrote:

well, if you are going to school for that, then i guess the proper keigo for that would prolly be biki. me, i just speak casual JP, and no keigo.

It has nothing to do with keigo.
It has to do with phonetics, as nikox2 said. However, it DOES matter if it's 'biki' or 'piki'.
Don't get me wrong, people will still understand you, but that's like a Japanese person saying, "It doesn't matter if you use an L or an R, they're the same."

For the record, the following is used when you have 'hiki' or any other 'h' counter:

�����҂��@ippiki
�ɂЂ� nihiki
����т� sanbiki
���Ђ� yonhiki
���Ђ� gohiki
����҂� or �낭�Ђ� roppiki or rokuhiki
�ȂȂЂ� or �����Ђ� nanahiki or shichihiki
�͂��҂� or �͂��Ђ� happiki or hachihiki
���イ�Ђ� kyuuhiki
������҂� or ���イ�Ђ� juppiki or juuhiki

*note* Where there are two pronunciations, the former is by far the more popular coloquially. You may hear the others, but for the most part, people use the first in the set.

HTH,

������
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amrayu wrote:

Yes, there's a rule for it. I learned it in japanese class also.

415 ey... where in sf? wouldn't happen to be takemoto sensei or fukuda sensei would it? haha then again chances are very slim [of the forementioned]

I think that learning Japanese numbers was the easiest thing that I'd ever learned from my tutor. She also told me to use "yon" instead of "shi" if I could help it. When I asked her why she just said "Please just do not use it often "

She finally told me that "shi" means both four and die after two weeks of begging her to tell me. I haven't used it since then even though that was like 2 years ago.
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neoshi wrote:

415 ey... where in sf? wouldn't happen to be takemoto sensei or fukuda sensei would it? haha then again chances are very slim [of the forementioned]

I took Japanese in various places (Lodi - High school, Stockton - Community College, San Francisco - SFSU, Japan - if you count visiting ).

Yeah, actually going Japan is one of the best ways to learn the language. I'll be living there for one and a half to two years starting next June.
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It actually isn't such a big issue. Many, many people still count shi for 4 and shichi for 7 (as do I). Also note that if you ever do any traditional martial art in Japan they always count "ichi ni san shi go roku shichi...", that's the "old" way. So I guess the whole yon/nana issue can't be such an ancient thing.

Surely the people dealing with death on a daily basis (martial art people) don't have a problem with it...

That might be the fact that after saying "san" shi is a more natural word to pronounce, since your mouth is already in that position. Notice after saying "san", shi is much each to say than "yon". This might just be my useless thinking though.

niko2x wrote:

counting is may be difficult for foreigners to comprehend (i hope that don't sound to condiscending) because diffrent things may be counted differently, case in point: if you're gonna be counting long things (such as pencils, chopsticks, etc.) it would be ipon, nihon, sampon... (1, 2, 3,...) if you were to count thin, flat things (such as paper, seeweed, etc) it would be cound as: ichi-mai, ni-mai, sanmai... if you're gonna be counting animails, it would be: ipiki, nipiki, sampiki... these are just a few other examples. - niko

I saw this article in Japan Times and to quote Homer Simpson, "It's funny because it's true.":http://www.japantimes.co.jp/life/2013/10/27/language/taking-count-of-the-sufficiency-of-japanese-suffixes/

gaijinmark wrote:

I saw this article in Japan Times and to quote Homer Simpson, "It's funny because it's true.":http://www.japantimes.co.jp/life/2013/10/27/language/taking-count-of-the-sufficiency-of-japanese-suffixes/

Heh, it's a good read. I got a kick out of recognising some of the kanji.
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