Measure words for counting
Whenever you talk about the quantity of something in Chinese, you need a measure word. The structure is:
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).
Some examples:
- 一 个 人
- 三 条 狗
- 两 只 猫
- 一 杯 啤酒
- 一 瓶 水
- 七 块 巧克力
- 一 盒 茶
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:
- 一 条 狗
- 一 条 河
- 一 条 路
- 一 条 龙
And one noun can take different measure words in different situations:
- 一 块 巧克力
- 一 盒 巧克力
- 一 颗 巧克力
See also
Sources and further reading
Books
- Basic Patterns of Chinese Grammar (pp. 33) →buy
