Difference between revisions of "Measure words for counting"

Line 42: Line 42:
 
* 一 <em>条</em> 龙 <span class="pinyin">yī<em>tiáo</em> lóng</span><span class="trans">a dragon</span>
 
* 一 <em>条</em> 龙 <span class="pinyin">yī<em>tiáo</em> lóng</span><span class="trans">a dragon</span>
 
* 一 <em>条</em> 鱼 <span class="pinyin">yī<em>tiáo</em> yú</span><span class="trans">a fish</span>
 
* 一 <em>条</em> 鱼 <span class="pinyin">yī<em>tiáo</em> yú</span><span class="trans">a fish</span>
 +
* 一 <em>条</em> 短信 <span class="pinyin">yī<em> tiáo</em> duǎnxìn</span><span class="trans">a fish</span>
  
 
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Revision as of 04:24, 17 February 2016

The Chinese use of measure words, linguistically called classifiers, are 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.

Measure word + Number + Noun

English does actually have measure words, it's just that most nouns usually 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 wrong in the factory).

Examples

  • réna person
  • liǎng zhī māotwo cats
  • sān tiáothree fish
  • 啤酒 bēi píjiǔfour glasses of beer
  • píng shuǐfive bottles of water
  • 巧克力 liù kuài qiǎokèlìsix pieces of chocolate
  • 茶叶 cháyèseven boxes of tea leaves
  • 电脑 tái diànnǎoeight computers
  • 玫瑰 jiǔ zhī méiguīnine roses
  • 美女 shí měinǚten 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:

  • tiáo gǒua dog
  • tiáoa river
  • tiáoa road
  • tiáo lónga dragon
  • tiáoa fish
  • 短信 tiáo duǎnxìna fish

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

  • 巧克力kuài qiǎokèlìa piece of chocolate
  • 巧克力 qiǎokèlìa box of chocolate
  • 巧克力 qiǎokèlìa small piece of chocolate

See also

Sources and further reading

Books