Indonesian has classifiers too, though not as elaborate a system as Brandon describes for ASL. Indonesian classifiers are mainly used in counting things, e.g.,
dua ekor kucing (two cats, ekor literally means tail and is used as the classifier for animals)
tiga batang rokok (three cigarettes, batang literally means tree trunk and is used as the classifier for cylindrical objects)
empat lembar foto (four photos, lembar literally means sheet of paper and is used for small flat objects)
lima bidang tanah (five plots of land, bidang means field and is used for big flat objects)
enam buah mobil (six cars, buah means fruit and is used for objects that don't have their own classifier)
tujuh orang guru (seven teachers, orang means person and is used for people).
They're mainly used in more formal language and can be omitted without changing the meaning. Indonesians often try and use piece or unit as a classifier in English. Five piece car to mean five cars, for example.
Bingley
