While having Ghengis Khan with some dou-min, one of them asked for "biiru
hitotsu". While I could understand the biiru, I was surprised that ippai
wasn't used.

I understand that (number)-tsu is valid Japanese, but not why it was used in
this particular case. Is using a more vague counter word more casual and
relaxed, akin to saying "a beer, please" rather than "one glass of beer,
please"? Or would "ippai" be confusing because of the phrase "o-naka wa ippai
(desu)" being used to indicate you're full?
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-02-17T03:05:48.390
4703
2012-02-19T05:37:58.950
2012-02-19T05:37:58.950
91
91
question
counters
Why biiru hitotsu rather than ippai?
This is pretty common in restaurants etc, both by staff and by customers.

I think it's just to make counting easier.

For example, ビール is counted with 杯{はい} when seved in a glass, but 本{ほん} when
served in a bottle. If rice is served in a chawan, it would be 杯{はい}, but when
served on a plate, it would be 皿{さら}.

So ～つ is just being used as a generic "X servings of ..."
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-02-17T04:14:47.310
4705
2012-02-17T04:14:47.310
1073
4703
answer