Japanese 264 - The long, cylindrical object counter 本

ほん is a counter word that is primarily used to count long, and mostly cylindrical, objects.

The pronunciation of ほん changes based on the number it's counting due to a linguistic phenomenon called rendaku or sequential voicing, in exactly the same way as the counter ふん for minutes, because both start with an h sound.

one long, cylindrical objectいっぽんippon
two long, cylindrical objectsほんnihon
three long, cylindrical objectsさんぼんsanbon
four long, cylindrical objectsよんほんyonhon
five long, cylindrical objectsほんgohon
six long, cylindrical objectsろっぽんroppon
seven long, cylindrical objectsななほんnanahon
eight long, cylindrical objectsはっぽんhappon
nine long, cylindrical objectsきゅうほんkyuuhon
ten long, cylindrical objectsじゅっぽんjuppon

Now we're finally ready to order some beer!

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