94 THE NUMERAL.
yo-nin, " four persons" (shi-nin means " a corpse "). iii-jti-yo-ban, No. 24.
The Chinese sJilchi, " seven," is sometimes replaced by the Japanese nana. This is done for clearness' sake, as sJiicJii is easily mistaken for shi, "four." Thus tradesmen will often say nana-jis-sen, instead of shlchi-jis- sen, " seventy cents." But this is never either necessary or elegant.
^i 156. Usage likewise establishes a shade of difference iBun the sense of certain expressions which would at first sight appear to be synonymous, thus :
hlto-hako, "one boxful;" Jinko Jiitotsu, "one box."
hlto-ts*ki, "one month;" iclii-gctsu, "the first month," i.e. "January;" ik-ka-getsu, "one month" (for ka see V 159).
hlto-ban, "one night;" ichi-ban, " number one." futa-ban, " two nights; " ui-ban, " number two."
N. B. Both these ban's are of Chinese origin ; but they are dif- ferent words written with different characters.
AUXILIARY NUMERALS.
IT 157. In English we do not say " one bread," " two beers," but "one loaf of bread," " two glasses of beer." Similarly, " ten sheets of paper," " a hundred head of cattle," " so many rubbers of whist," &c. It is this kind of words which, in Japanese grammar, are termed " auxiliary numerals." " Auxiliaries to the numerals " would be more strictly correct. The term " classifier " has also been proposed ; but " auxiliary numeral " is that
