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Comment by glandium | Hacker News Reader

The counter for coins is mai or ko. Ikko is thus correct. Only wo is missing for perfect grammar, but in informal spoken japanese, it's often omitted. So overall the sentence is correct... except for the conjugation. Because ireru doesn't really invite to insert a coin.

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No, it is not correct in this context. If you are speaking with your friends, then it is OK to say “ikko.” However, in an instructional setting, which this is, “hitotsu” is the correct phrasing. “Ko” is used in casual situations. I have been localizing software, manuals, marketing materials, training documents, scientific papers, etc. for over two decades with native Japanese speakers. I’m also married to one. Trust me on this.

Well, this is an arcade machine, and the setting is much more casual, so ikko is just as acceptable. The problem is, as GP pointed out, with ireru. I can think of some alternatives

1. koin wo ikko irete kudasai 2. koin wo ikko ireru no da! 3. koin ikko irete! 4. koin ikko ireru no! 5. koin ikko irenai? 6. koin ikko irenai ka? 7. koin wo ikko ireru to purei dekiru

This whole thread misses the point - the "correct", natural-sounding text for the situation was simply "INSERT COIN". That's what ~every other machine of the era used, and what players expected.

Of course, there are other correct alternatives in Japanese. That is not my point. The article makes two statements that are not correct:

1. "koin ikko ireru" is wrong because of the verb conjugation. The reason it is wrong is that "ikko" is something kids say to each other, or that parents say to their kids, and is weird/incorrect to say in a context where teens and adults are involved. It is also missing the "o" (or "wo," if you prefer).

2. "koin o ireru" is incorrect, again because of verb conjugation. There is nothing wrong with this phrase.

Of course, you could say コインを入れてください, コインを一つ入れる, コインを一枚入れる, コインを入れる, Insert Coin, and other variations on that theme. My only point is that the two asserts above are incorrect in the article.

I also didn't feel that anything was wrong with using 入れる instead of 入れてください. If it's already clear a process or instruction is being explained, sometimes you don't use a grammatical command - I've seen it before.

I don't think "ko is informal" is entirely true. Based on my few years in Japan, plus just now looking up "ko" dictionary to look for any nuance I've missed, it seems like "ko" is fine even in formal contexts, especially if it's used for (semi) mathematical purposes.

If I search Google for "リンゴ１つ" (one apple) it automatically matches it with pages that use "リンゴ１個". Also, the latter is much more common than the former looking at the first 10 results, and the latter appears in otherwise formal-sounding phrases like "りんご1個は、中くらいのサイズで300g前後なので、1個あたりのカロリーは、約183kcalとなります。"

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