Measure word "ge"
Revision as of 13:50, 21 January 2012 by WikiSysop (talk | contribs) (→Sources and further reading)
The measure word 个 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 a lot of nouns, 个 is the correct measure word.
Contents
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 noun with quantity must have a measure word in Chinese.
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, you can omit it. This is equivalent to a or an in English, for example in "a person" or "an idiot". This is only necessary if you want to emphasise the quantity of one. Otherwise you don't need to use a measure word at all.
Some examples:
- 他 是 个 喜欢 喝醉 的 人。
- 这 是 个 好吃 的 苹果。
- 我 是 个 英国 绅士。
See also
Sources and further reading
Books
- Integrated Chinese: Level 1, Part 1 (3rd ed) (pp. 45 - 46) →buy
Websites
- Chinese classifier (Wikipedia)
