ABSTRACT
Discussing quantities of things in Chinese can be a little complicated in that something called a ‘measure word’ must be used between a number and its noun. In Lesson 1, we came across one of these measure words: bbi in yc bbi kafbi. Different categories of nouns require different measure words. For instance, gè (often pronounced with neutral tone) is used for human beings, whereas tóu is used for animals and tiáo is used for things such as a scarf, a tie, trousers, etc. For example:
Wn rènshi san ge Ycngguórén. I know three British people.
