In Chinese, a numeral is usually not followed immediately by a noun. Rather, a measure
word is inserted between the number and the noun, as in (1), (2), and (3) below. Similarly, a
measure word is often inserted between a demonstrative pronoun and a noun, as in (4) and
(5) below. There are over one hundred measure words in Chinese, but you may hear only
two or three dozen in everyday speech. Many nouns are associated with special measure
words, which often bear a relationship to the meaning of the given noun. 个 is the single most common measure word in Chinese. It is also sometimes
used as a substitute for other measure words.