Nature 1
What were you doing?
Remember, you can use the て form in the phrases like 食べています to talk about something you’re doing. To talk about something you were doing, you’d say 食べていました instead!
私は泣いていました。
I was crying.
I was crying.
飛行機が空を飛んでいました。
The plane was flying through the sky.
The plane was flying through the sky.
川でゆっくり泳いでいました。
(I) was slowly swimming in the river.
(I) was slowly swimming in the river.
Counting animals
There are different counters in Japanese for different types of things. For animals, you can use the counter 匹!
私の家には犬が三匹います。
In my house, there are three dogs.
In my house, there are three dogs.
匹 sounds like びき or ぴき depending on what number comes before it!
| 一匹 ippiki | one (small animal) |
| 二匹 nihiki | two (small animals) |
| 三匹 sanbiki | three (small animals) |
| 四匹 yonhiki | four (small animals) |
| 五匹 gohiki | five (small animals) |
| 六匹 roppiki | six (small animals) |
| 七匹 nanahiki | seven (small animals) |
| 八匹 happiki | eight (small animals) |
| 九匹 kyūhiki | nine (small animals) |
| 十匹 juppiki | ten (small animals) |