Counting items in Japanese requires the use of something called a "counter" (here is a wikipedia article in case you're interested: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_counter_word). You can think of counters as a part of speech that is added before the number, and which counter you need to use depends on what you are counting. So, for example, if you are counting animals you would use 匹 (ひき), but if you were counting long, thin (cylindrical) objects, you would use 本 (ほん). Ex. 公園には犬が二匹ある。(there are two dogs in the park) 私にはえんぴつが一本ある。 (I have one pencil) The counter plus number usually goes after the particle (as seen above after が, and in the following example after を) Ex. 先週には本を3冊読んだ。 ( (I) read three books last week ) But, it can be placed before the item (which, if I'm not mistaken, adds emphasis to the number) Ex. 二本のビールを飲んだ。( (I) drank TWO bottles of beer ) Counters are quite complicated but with practice you'll eventually get the hang of them. Also, whenever you don't know which counter to use, you could try using the generic counter つ; it won't sound natural for many nouns, but at least people will understand what you're saying. Hope this helps. Good luck! 頑張って！

Counting in japanese can be quite difficult. I've lived here for almost 10 years and I still make mistakes in this language. If you don't know exactly how to count a specific thing, you can say 一つ、二つ、三つ、四つ(hitotsu, futatsu, mitsu, yotsu, and so on..), or add 個 (KO) after the number (一個、二個、三個, ikko, niko, sanko...). For minutes, you must add 分 (pun, bun, fun) after the number. 一分、二分、三分 (ippun, nihun, sanbun) and so on. I have 3 questtions = 私は質問三つあります（わたし　は　しつもん　みつ　あります） I have 5 minutes = 私は五分あります（わたし　は　ごふん　あります） I only have 1 pencil = 私は鉛筆一個しか持ってません（わたし　は　えんぴつ　いっこ　しか　もってません） Hope this was useful. Good studies!