三つ

Japanese

Etymology 1

Kanji in this term
三
みっ Grade: 1
kun'yomi

Alternative spelling
3つ

Shift from previous 三(み)つ (mitsu).

Alternative forms

• 三(み)つ (mitsu)

Pronunciation

• (Tokyo) みっつ [mìttsúꜜ] (Odaka – [3])
• (Tokyo) みっつ [mìttsú] (Heiban – [0])
• IPA^(key): [mʲit̚t͡sɨ]

Accent [0] is adverbial.

Noun

三(みっ)つ • (mittsu) 

1. three things [small or without a counter category]

Usage notes

三(みっ)つ (mittsu) is used when the items counted have no specific counter category. See Wikipedia's "Japanese counter word" entry for details.

See also

Japanese number-counter combinations for つ (tsu)
1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	How many?
一(ひと)つ (hitotsu)	二(ふた)つ (futatsu)	三(みっ)つ (mittsu) 三(み)つ (mitsu)	四(よっ)つ (yottsu) 四(よ)つ (yotsu)	五(いつ)つ (itsutsu)	六(むっ)つ (muttsu) 六(む)つ (mutsu)	七(なな)つ (nanatsu)	八(やっ)つ (yattsu) 八(や)つ (yatsu)	九(ここの)つ (kokonotsu)	幾(いく)つ (ikutsu)

Etymology 2

Kanji in this term
三
み Grade: 1
kun'yomi

Alternative spelling
3つ

From Old Japanese. By surface analysis, 三 (mi, “three”) +‎ つ (tsu, generic counter word).

Pronunciation

• (Tokyo) みつ [mìtsúꜜ] (Odaka – [2])
• (Tokyo) みつ [míꜜtsù] (Atamadaka – [1])
• IPA^(key): [mʲit͡sɨ]

Noun

三(み)つ • (mitsu) 

1. Alternative form of 三つ (mittsu)