Counters are suffixes that combine with numbers when different things are counted. Unlike in English, where the thing you are counting directly follows the number (e.g. 25 pencils), in Japanese there are dozens of different counter words for this purpose. In this lesson we introduce the counter 人nin used for counting numbers of people.　

Counter words directly follow the number of the thing you are counting. For example, 200 people is written 200人nin. Counters tend to contain irregularities in the way they are pronounced for certain numbers. For 人nin there are four irregularities. They are for the numbers 1, 2, 4, and 7, as shown in the table below.

English	Japanese

Below are some example sentences to show you how counters are used in context.

English	Japanese

Note how in this last sentence the particle で is used to indicate the way something is done. The way we were watching television was by the two of us, namely together.

Breakdown of hatinin