In reply to:

In Japanese, you say something like five round-things-quantifier balls, two human-quantifier people, etc.

Indonesian has the same thing.

the most common ones are:

orang for humans (literally person) tiga orang anak = three children
ekor for animals (literally tail) tiga ekor singa = three lions
helai for flat things tiga helai kertas = three sheets of paper
buah for everything else(literally fruit) tiga buah mobil = three cars

There are lots more (like batang (literally stalk) for plants) but they're not used so much nowadays except in very literary or old-fashioned Indonesian. Notice that if you have a number you don't need a plural in Indonesian. Mobil-mobil = cars; tiga buah mobil = three cars.

Bingley


Bingley