Classifiers and measure words
Do we need another word to say what unit we are counting?
Meaning
An extra word beside a number or amount can show what kind of item or unit is being counted. These words let us count portions or group things by features such as shape. Some languages require a counting word with ordinary nouns, while others use such words mainly for units like cups or kilos. Quantity tells us how much there is; Classifiers and measure words covers the words used to count or measure it.
How to spot it
Look between a number or amount and the thing being counted for a word that names a unit or kind of item, and check when that word is required.
In your native language
English usually places a number directly before a noun for things counted one by one, as in three apples. To count amounts of water or individual items of advice, it uses units such as a bottle of or a piece of. The unit word takes the plural ending, as in two bottles of water.
We need two bottles of water.
The bottles provide countable units for the water; bottles is plural.
She gave me a piece of advice.
Advice is not normally counted directly, so piece supplies a unit.
I bought three apples.
No counting word is needed between the number and apples.
In your learning language
Spanish counts ordinary objects directly with a number and a noun, normally using a plural noun after numbers greater than one. To count portions or give a measured amount, a measure word naming a unit, such as vaso or kilo, comes before de and the name of the contents. There is no required extra counting word for ordinary people or objects.
En la cocina hay cuatro sillas.
There are four chairs in the kitchen.
The number goes directly before the plural noun, without an extra counting word.
Necesitamos dos kilos de arroz.
We need two kilos of rice.
Kilos names the measured units, and de connects them to the rice.
¿Me traes un vaso de agua, por favor?
Could you bring me a glass of water, please?
Learners whose language requires a counting word with ordinary nouns may add an unnecessary word in Spanish. Learners whose language leaves nouns singular after numbers may forget the plural on both ordinary nouns and measure words.