Counting People

Japanese is notorious for its usage of counters, and it's probably one of the most unfamiliar aspects of the language. Thankfully in the case of counting people, the system isn't too painful. Here's the list of counting up to ten people:

一人 - ひとり
二人 - ふたり
三人 - さんにん
四人 - よにん
五人 - ごにん
六人 - ろくにん
七人 - しちにん / ななにん
八人 - はちにん
九人 - きゅうにん
十人 - じゅうにん

One/two people are irregular, but the rest are mostly fine. That is often not the case with other counters, which leads to strange variations in the readings.

To describe how many people there are, I can add the が particle after the people-related noun, followed by the appropriate counter. いる is used here since people are living creatures, not objects.

日本語のクラスには学生が九人います。
There are nine students in my Japanese class.

今日公園に友達が二人いた。
Two of my friends were at the park today.

昨日レストランにウェイターが五人いました。
There were five waiters at the restaurant yesterday.

アパートに男が三人いる。
There are three guys at my apartment.