i didn't realize this difference  before recently my language exchange partener told me that the measure words in chinese was so complicated.

 in english we use a,an ,or numbers +things ,however in chinese we use number+measure word+things

like three books=三本书

       a  buliding=一栋楼

       a desk=一张桌子

and so on ......

but i think 个 is the most common measure word in chinese.

pratice makes prefect.so don't give up easily.

English is alsonot that easy to learn .