Difference between revisions of "Measure word "ge""

Revision as of 03:07, 3 February 2012

The measure word 个 (ge) is the most common measure word. It can be used for any noun if you can't think of a more precise measure word. Also, for many nouns, 个 is the correct measure word.

General structure

The general structure for 个 (and measure words in general) is:

Number + 个 + Noun

You can specify the quantity of any noun with this structure. Note that any time you want to state how many of a noun in Chinese, you probably need a measure word. First get used to doing it with 个.

Some examples:

一个人
两个人
三个苹果
一个三明治
八十个诗人

Omitting the number

If the number is one (1), you can omit it and use 个 by itself. This is equivalent to a or an in English, for example in "a person" or "an idiot."

Some examples of that:

他是个好人。
那不是个苹果。
我是个英国人。

Sources and further reading

Books

Chinese: An Essential Grammar, Second Edition (pp. 21-2) →buy
Integrated Chinese: Level 1, Part 1 (3rd ed) (pp. 45-6) →buy

Websites

Chinese classifier (Wikipedia)

@@ Line 49: / Line 49: @@
 === Books ===
+* [[Chinese: An Essential Grammar, Second Edition]] (pp. 21-2) [http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0415372615/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=allset-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399369&creativeASIN=0415372615 →buy]
 * [[Integrated Chinese: Level 1, Part 1 (3rd ed)]] (pp. 45-6) [http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0887276385/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=allset-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399369&creativeASIN=0887276385 →buy]