Difference between revisions of "Measure words for counting"

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The Chinese use of measure words, linguistically called [http://http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classifier_(linguistics) classifiers], is very common in East Asian languages. Chinese learners should master them.
 
The Chinese use of measure words, linguistically called [http://http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classifier_(linguistics) classifiers], is very common in East Asian languages. Chinese learners should master them.

Revision as of 05:52, 26 November 2013

The Chinese use of measure words, linguistically called classifiers, is very common in East Asian languages. Chinese learners should master them.

Structure

Whenever you talk about the quantity of something in Chinese, you need a measure word.

MW + Number + Noun

English does actually have measure words, it's just that most nouns don't need them. In English, most nouns are count nouns - they specify one instance of something. "An apple", for example. Some nouns are mass nouns, and refer to something without specifying how much of it there is. Examples are "furniture", "people", "chocolate" etc. You can't say "a furniture". You need a measure word: "a piece of furniture", "two groups of people", "three bars of chocolate" and so on.

In Chinese, all nouns are mass nouns, so they all need measure words. Just as in English, different nouns are associated with different measure words (e.g. it wouldn't make sense to talk about "a bar of furniture", unless something went badly wrong in the factory).

Examples

  • a person
  • two cats
  • three fish
  • 啤酒four glasses of beer
  • five bottles of water
  • 巧克力six pieces of chocolate
  • 茶叶seven boxes of tea leaves
  • 电脑eight computers
  • 玫瑰nine roses
  • 美女ten beautiful women

Also remember that there isn't a one-to-one relationship between nouns and measure words. One measure word can be used with several different nouns:

  • a dog
  • a river
  • a road
  • a dragon
  • a fish

And one noun can take different measure words in different situations:

  • 巧克力a piece of chocolate
  • 巧克力a box of chocolate
  • 巧克力a small piece of chocolate

See also

Sources and further reading

Books