Nominal classification

What has to stand between a number and the thing counted?

English puts a number straight in front of most nouns — three books, three dogs — and only reaches for an extra word when the noun resists counting: three sheets of paper, two head of cattle. Across East and Southeast Asia that extra word is required for ordinary countable things, and which one you pick depends on what the thing is. Japanese counts books with 冊, sheets with 枚 and pencils with 本. Bantu languages get at a comparable job from the other end, making the numeral agree with the class the noun already belongs to.