In languages that feature classifiers, this word class constitutes an obligatory element of the noun phrase. The purpose of classifiers is to assign nouns to specific classes[1] without further affecting the meaning of the sentence. In terms of word order, they may appear before or after the nouns they modify.

Types:

NoClsfr: The language does not have classifiers.

ClsfrN: Classifiers precede the noun.

NClfsr: Classifiers follow the noun.

When a language displays both word orders, two values can be listed. If one word order is dominant, a slash (/) can separate the two values, with the dominant value appearing first; if neither is dominant, they are listed with an ampersand (&) separating them.

[1] Classes may include grammatical gender.