What's the difference between the -banme and -ban counters?

Question

I found these two sentences in RosettaStone

kochira no sanbanme no seki desu

kanojo wa hachiban no seki ni suwatte imasu

Why is the first one not "sanban" and the second one not "hachibanme"?

Answer 1

You can think of it like

◯-ban ↔ no. ◯
◯-banme ↔ ◯^st,nd,rd,th

so

sanbanme no seki = the third seat
hachiban no seki = seat no. 8

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There are a few related questions, but they usually use hiragana and kanji:

• What is the correct way of saying "third" in different contexts?
• 「二番」 vs. 「二番目」 confusion
• Why is this [二番目]{に・ばん・め} counter used for a person?