Page 85 - Easy Japanese - Learn to Speak Japanese Quickly! (TUTTLE)

When counting items in Japanese, numbers are combined with classifiers that are
conventionally used for the particular nouns being counted. This is similar to
English expressions like “ten sheets of paper”, or “a loaf of bread” (not “a
bread”).
There are two numerical systems in Japanese: one of Chinese origin, which
was introduced in Lesson 3, and another system of Japanese origin, which only
goes up to the number ten.

1 hito, 2 futa, 3 mi, 4 yo, 5 itsu, 6 mu, 7 nana, 8 ya, 9 kokono, 10 tō

The classifiers -ri/nin, -mei, and -mei-sama are used to count people. The -ri
plus the Japanese number is used for the number one and two (hito-ri, futa-ri),
and -nin is used for three and above with Chinese numbers (san-nin, jūichi-nin,
hyaku-nin, etc.) The question word is nan-nin “how many people”.
The classifier -mei, used with Chinese numbers, is a formal version and -mei-
sama is its polite version (raising the person you’re talking to), commonly used

by service people. Make sure you do not use -mei-sama to refer to your own
group.
The classifier -tsu is the most generic classifier, which can be used for both
tangible and intangible items such as opinions, meetings, etc. It may be a safe
choice when you are not sure what classifier to use. The classifier -tsu is
combined with Japanese numerals and for quantities over ten, Chinese numerals
without a classifier are used: jū-ichi, jū-ni, etc.

The classifier -hon is combined with Chinese numerals and is used to count
long cylindrical objects such as bottles, pens, umbrellas, bananas, etc. Note the
alternatives for -hon: -pon for one, six, eight, ten and -bon for three and “how
many”.

-ri/nin -mei; mei- -tsu -hon/pon/bon

sama
1 hito-ri ichi-mei hito-tsu ip-pon
2 futa-ri ni-mei futa-tsu ni-hon

3 san-nin san-mei mit-tsu san-bon

4 yo-nin yon-mei yot-tsu yon-hon
5 go-nin go-mei itsu-tsu go-hon

6 roku-nin roku-mei mut-tsu rop-pon
7 shichi-nin nana-mei nana-tsu nana-hon