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I recently wanted to say " _The Japanese counting system does not make sense._
" However, I could not figure out how to communicate the full meaning of "does
not make sense". I don't want to say that it is good, bad, difficult, stupid,
weird, etc. I want to express the closest approximation to the abstract
meaning of " _does not make sense_ ".

I found " **理{り}にかなう** " in a dictionary. I've never even heard「理」used all by
itself. I've only heard it in words such as 「理屈」 and 「理由」. So, I'm not so sure
that that phrase is a natural thing to blurt out in a conversation.

  * Is 「理にかなう」 actually a natural thing to say in daily conversation? Does it have the meaning I want? 
  * The phrase " _makes sense_ " can be used in many contexts, and most of the time it can be talked around using Japanese I somewhat know. But, in the specific case of " _The Japanese counting system does not make sense._ ", how do you capture the nuance?
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2014-07-12T13:21:03.633
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phrase-requests
how to say "does not make sense"?
I think the best advice here is to suggest you consider what you really mean
and if there is a different way of saying it with the Japanese you have
learnt.

At the moment, based on your question, it sounds like you want to say "the
Japanese counting system is not logical" (which is what we mean by "making
sense"). This is quite easy:

> 日本の数え方は論理的ではない（のです）。  
>  Literally: "Japan's way of counting is not logical."  
>  Rephrased: "The Japanese way of counting is not logical"  
>  => "The Japanese counting system does not make sense."

However, this is not a fair statement: As in English, there are several
counting systems, they may serve different purposes but, as far as I know,
they are based on logic, otherwise they would not be used.

Also, if you said this, you might not get a good reaction. It comes over in a
similar way to the statement "The English language does not make sense."

What do you really want to say and what kind of response are you looking for?:

> ~ does not make sense to me.  
>  ~ is confusing.  
>  I don't understand ~  
>  ~ unnecessarily complicated.  
>  ~ is stupid and does not make sense.

Do you want someone to explain something or just empathise with the challenge
of learning how to count in Japanese? If you can answer this question clearly
then it should be easy to answer your question.

**Note on 理にかなう**

You identified this as a candidate expression. My プログレシブ〜辞典 tells me that:

> logicalが「論理的思考」を意味するのに対し, reasonableは「理にかなった思考」を意味する.

As your own comments suggest, I suspect this expression is quite "堅い" and
would be used when coming to a favourable conclusion in a matter or
academic/legal judgement. Unless you have a well thought out thesis to
present, this expression may not fit your need but, as I said, you need to be
clear what you want to say and what response you are seeking.
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I think the closest approximation is `訳【わけ】が分からない` (lit. _reason is not
understandable_ ).

> 日本語の数え方は訳が分からない。

This is an informal expression, and depending on the context, this can be used
to express your _subjective_ , personal confusion (does not make sense _to me_
):

> 日本語の数え方は **私にとって** 訳が分からない。

... and to express that something is _objectively_ a mess:

> 日本語の数え方は訳が分からないので、勉強する人は大変だろう。

Indeed the first sentence can be interpreted in both ways, and people may ask
back to you saying 「自分にとって? それとも一般論として?」

* * *

`理にかなう`, `論理的でない` or something like these basically expresses the _objective_
lack of logic:

> 私は、日本語の数え方は理にかなっていないと思う。

This says the Japanese counting system is bad and illogical (to anyone).

And `ちんぷんかんぷん` (noun) is sometimes used, focusing on subjective understanding
of the speaker (It's all _Greek_ to me):

> 日本語の数え方は、私にはちんぷんかんぷんです。
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