What is 18坪? (じゅうはち + つぼ = ?)

Question

What is 18坪? (じゅうはち + つぼ = ?)

I found this sentence

１８坪の店内【てんない】は落【お】ち着【つ】いた雰囲気【ふんいき】で、壁面【へきめん】にはぐるりとＳＰ、ＬＰレコードなどが１万枚【いちまんまい】並【なら】ぶ

https://www.yomiuri.co.jp/culture/music/20220701-OYT1T50230

I did not know how to pronounce １８坪, but I found this explanation:

One or two 坪【つぼ】 are read using 和語【わご】, three can be 和語【わご】 or 漢語【かんご】, and the rest are (you guessed it) 漢語【かんご】

https://www.tofugu.com/japanese/japanese-counters-list/

So how does one combine じゅうはち + つぼ? I thought I'd just ask rather than guess incorrectly, since sometimes the final 8changes in the number's pronunciation, like in 800【はっぴゃく】 and 18歳 【じゅうはっさい】.

Answer 1

坪 is a traditional Japanese unit of room size which corresponds to 3.31 m². So 18坪 is about 59.5 m².

The kanji itself is always pronounced as つぼ without rendaku.

One or two tsubo are read using wago, three plots can be wago or kango, and the rest are (you guessed it) kango.

This means tsubo is counted like so:

• 1坪: ひとつぼ
• 2坪: ふたつぼ
• 3坪: みつぼ or さんつぼ
• 4坪: よんつぼ
• 5坪: ごつぼ
• 6坪: ろくつぼ
• 7坪: ななつぼ or しちつぼ
• 8坪: はちつぼ or はっつぼ
• 9坪: きゅうつぼ
• 10坪: じゅっつぼ or じっつぼ
• 18坪: じゅうはちつぼ or じゅうはっつぼ
• and so on

The first three are indeed very tricky, but the rest should be straightforward. (摘み also shows this tricky pattern. ひとつまみ, ふたつまみ, さんつまみ, よんつまみ, ...)