how to say "does not make sense"? 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 " **{}** " in a dictionary. I've never even heardused all by itself. I've only heard it in words such as and . So, I'm not so sure that that phrase is a natural thing to blurt out in a conversation. * Is 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?

I think the closest approximation is `` (lit. _reason is not understandable_ ).

>

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_ ):

> ****

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

>

Indeed the first sentence can be interpreted in both ways, and people may ask back to you saying ? ?

* * *

``, `` or something like these basically expresses the _objective_ lack of logic:

>

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

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

>