猫の写真で日本語の動作を学ぼう

How do you count cats in Japanese?

You can’t simply say “three cats” in Japanese — you need a counter, and for small animals it’s 匹 (hiki): 猫が三匹 (sanbiki), “three cats.” The catch is that the sound keeps shifting. 一匹 is ippiki, 二匹 is nihiki, 三匹 is sanbiki — the very same 匹 comes out as -piki, -hiki, or -biki depending on the number in front of it.

Those shifts (sound-doubling and rendaku) follow a pattern you’ll meet in many counters: 六匹 roppiki, 十匹 juppiki. Bigger animals like horses or cows switch to a different counter altogether, 頭 (tō). In the clip, cats get tallied one and three at a time — 一匹、三匹 — while they eat, which is a nice way to hear 匹 change shape in real time.