何(なん) + (Counter) + かSome, Several, A few

The expression なん + counter + か in Japanese is a way of highlighting an uncertain number of something, and comes across similarly to 'some', 'several', or 'a few' in English. Literally, the meaning is much closer to 'what + counter + I wonder?', as it shows the speaker's uncertainty about the number.

In addition to なん; いく, from the kanji 幾(いく) (how many/much) may be used as part of this construction. While both are fairly common, 幾(いく) is more common as part of set expressions, like 幾(いく)ら (how much) and 幾(いく)つ (how many/old), while なん is more common for counting specific things, like people.

Both 何(なん) and 幾(いく) are regularly seen in plain hiragana and their kanji forms, so it is worth remembering both.

Caution

Despite having the same kanji as 何(なに), なん will almost always be used to count things, while なに will be used to identify things.