I was thinking how I'd write a recipe in Japanese which uses 2 garlic cloves,
so I've put those terms on google translate and got the following results:

  * garlic: ニンニク
  * garlic clove: にんにく
  * garlic bulb: にんにく球根

The problem is that I see a lot of garlic bulbs when searching images for
"にんにく" and I also realize "ニンニク" and "にんにく" are pronounced the same, which
makes me think there's more to the way google is translating these terms,
could anyone confirm if these terms are correct? And how would you
differentiate between "garlic" and "garlic clove" in spoken Japanese?
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meaning counters food
How to say "garlic", "garlic clove" and "garlic bulb" in Japanese?
ニンニク (katakana syllabary) and にんにく (hiragana syllabary) are two different but
equivalent ways of writing the same thing: garlic.

  * garlic: ニンニク or にんにく
  * garlic clove: ニンニクのひとかけ (based on this website: <https://gourmet-note.jp/posts/2607>)
  * garlic bulb: ニンニクの球根 or ニンニクの鱗茎 (I think 鱗茎 is a more specific term)
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As @rebuuilt notes, ニンニク and にんにく are the same word written in two different
syllabaries ("alphabets"). (There also exists a rarely used _kanji_
representation 大蒜.)

The most common way to refer to a single clove of garlic is

> 1片

(or using _kanji_ for the number: 一片) which can be read either ひとかけ _hitokake_
or いっぺん _ippen_.

I think for a bulb of garlic one would usually just use a generic counter such
as [1個]{いっこ} _ikko_ , and not the word for (plant) bulb, which is more a
botanical term. (In these sort of contexts Google Translate often reverts to
word-by-word translation which is highly misleading.)
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If you mean you use those words in cooking, we rather say like:

  * にんにく一玉【ひとたま】 or 一房【ひとふさ】: "a ball/bunch of garlic" = "a garlic bulb"

  * にんにく一片【ひとかけ】: "a chip of garlic" = "a garlic clove"

In your case, "2 garlic cloves" will be にんにく二片【ふたかけ】.

Or if you refer to "a garlic bulb" in the context of gardening, then:

  * にんにく一株【ひとかぶ】 or 一本【いっぽん】: "a root of garlic"

球根 "bulb" is a word you use to specify that part of garlic in contrast to
other stalk or leaf etc. Usually the most useful part of the plant is the
bulb, so you don't need to add it explicitly. "Clove" doesn't have an everyday
noun as far as I know, but technically called 鱗片【りんぺん】.

にんにく and ニンニク are the same word, but [biological terms tend to be written in
katakana](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/20840/7810).

See also:

  * [数え方単位辞典: にんにく/ニンニク](https://www.sanabo.com/kazoekata/ct_na/ni/ninniku/)
  * [ニンニクのしくみ｜各部名称と特徴](https://%E3%83%8B%E3%83%B3%E3%83%8B%E3%82%AF%E6%A0%BD%E5%9F%B9.com/%E3%83%8B%E3%83%B3%E3%83%8B%E3%82%AF%E6%A0%BD%E5%9F%B9%E3%81%AE%E5%9F%BA%E6%9C%AC/%E3%83%8B%E3%83%B3%E3%83%8B%E3%82%AF%E3%81%AE%E3%81%97%E3%81%8F%E3%81%BF%EF%BD%9C%E5%90%84%E9%83%A8%E5%90%8D%E7%A7%B0%E3%81%A8%E7%89%B9%E5%BE%B4.html)
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