You've read the other writeups and now think you can count in Japanese? <amused chuckle> Think again.

One of the more annoying features of the Japanese language is that they use variable counting suffixes for different things. While based on the above Chinese origin numbers, the suffix changes according to what you are counting. Some examples:

To count the floors of a building, you use kai:

ikkai
nikai
sankai
yonkai
gokai

To count people, you use nin, but the first two are irregular:

hitori
futari
sannin
yonin
gonin

To count flat things, such as pieces of paper, you use mai:

ichimai
nimai
sanmai
yonmai
gomai

To count large machines, you use dai:

ichidai
nidai
sandai
yondai
godai

To count steps, you use ho:

ippo
niho
sanbo
yonho
goho

There are dozens of these suffixes. Students of Japanese have a lot of fun memorizing them...