▎Measures, (nominal), Units for Counting Nouns in Chinese (1)

 

Function Nouns in Chinese are not directly countable. To count nouns, measures are used in between numbers and nouns.

1 一個朋友

yí ge péngyǒu

a friend

2 三本書

sān běn shū

three books

3 四張紙

sì zhāng zhǐ

four piece of papar

4 四枝毛筆

sì zhī máobǐ

four Chinese writing brush

 

Structures

(1) Number＋Measure＋Noun

1 三個人

sān ge rén

three people

2 幾張照片？

jǐ zhāng zhàopiàn?

How many photos?

(2) Determiner＋Number＋Measure＋Noun

1 那兩個人

nà liǎng ge rén

those two people

2 這三本書

zhè sān běn shū

these three books

When the number following 哪nǎ , 那nà , or 這zhè is 一yī ‘one’, the number is often omitted. For example, 哪一個人nǎ yí ge rén ‘which person?’ is the same as 哪個人nǎ ge rén. Likewise, 這個人zhè ge rén ‘this person’ and 那本書nà běn shū ‘that book’.

 

Usage

(1) There are many measure words in Chinese. In linguistics, most of them are called classifiers. Different measure words are used with different nouns. 個ge is the most frequently used measure word and is used as the measure for many different kinds of nouns. When learning a new noun, we need to pay attention to the measure words that can be used with it.

(2) When the numeral is ‘two’, you do not say ‘二èr＋measure＋noun’, rather you say ‘兩liǎng＋measure＋noun’,

i.e.,／兩＋Measure＋Noun

兩／ 個／妹妹／liǎng ge mèimei (two sisters)

兩／ 個／日本人／liǎng ge Rìběn rén (two Japanese people)

兩／ 張／照片／liǎng zhāng zhàopiàn (two photos)

(3) Some common measures and their associated nouns.

 

1	個	朋友	老師	學生	人	妹妹
	ge	péngyǒu friend	lǎoshī teacher	xuéshēng student	rén person	mèimei sister
2	本	書	雜誌	小說	課本	日記
	běn	shū book	zázhì magazine	xiǎoshuō novel	kèběn textbook	rìjì diary
3	支	手機	傘	舞	牙刷	廣告
	zhī	shǒujī cellphone	sǎn umbrella	wŭ dance	yáshuā toothbrush	guǎnggào advertisement
4	塊	蛋糕	布	肉	玉	木頭
	kuài	dàngāo cake	bù cloth	ròu meat	yù jade	mùtou wood
5	條	魚	河	毛巾	裙子	馬路
	tiáo	yú fish	hé river	máojīn towel	qúnzi skirt	mǎlù road
6	種	水果	方法	情況	感覺	產品
	zhǒng	shuĭguǒ fruit	fāngfǎ method	qíngkuàng situation	gǎnjué feeling	chǎnpĭn product
7	隻	狗	小鳥	老虎	腳	眼睛
	zhī	gǒu dog	xiǎoniǎo bird	lǎohŭ tiger	jiǎo foot	yǎnjīng eye
8	家	公司	銀行	咖啡店	醫院	廠商
	jiā	gōngsī company	yínháng bank	kāfēi diàn cafe	yīyuàn hospital	chǎngshāng manufacturer
9	件	事	案子	外套	衣服	藝術品
	jiàn	shì thing	ànzi case	wàitào jacket	yīfú clothes	yìshùpĭn artwork
10	場	電影	比賽	音樂會	大雨	表演
	chǎng	diànyĭng movie	bĭsài competition	yīnyuè huì concert	dàyŭ heavy rain	biǎoyǎn performance