Japanese

The counter 枚

The counter 枚まい is used to count flat, thin objects like paper, photographs and plates. Note in the table below that when using the counter 枚まい after a numeral, no phonetic change occurs. In fact, for all counters starting with an m sound, no phonetic change occurs when they are preceded by a numeral.

Japanese	Hiragana reading
one flat, thin object	一いち枚まい itimai
two flat, thin objects	二に枚まい nimai
three flat, thin objects	三さん枚まい sanmai
four flat, thin objects	四よん枚まい yonmai
five flat, thin objects	五ご枚まい gomai
six flat, thin objects	六ろく枚まい rokumai
seven flat, thin objects	七なな枚まい nanamai
eight flat, thin objects	八はち枚まい hatimai
nine flat, thin objects	九きゅう枚まい kyuumai
ten flat, thin objects	十じゅう枚まい zyuumai

Using counters to count objects

When counting objects we can place the counter after the object we are counting.

I want three photos.	写しゃ真しん　三さん枚まい　が　ほしい　です。 syasin sanmai ga hosii desu.
There are four plates.	皿さら　四よん枚まい　が　あります。 sara yonmai ga arimasu.