ABSTRACT
To a certain degree, the choice of the measure word is arbitrary. Therefore, when a noun is acquired by the learner as a new vocabulary word, its matching measure word should be learned at the same time. For example, the phrase ‘a pair of ’ can involve different measure words depending on the nouns being described: ‘a pair of chopsticks’ is 一双筷子 (yì shuAng kuàizi), whereas ‘a pair of earrings’ is 一付耳环 (yí fù Lrhuán). There are over 100 words that can be used as measure words. This chapter will not list all these words and their nouns. Instead, the focus will be on the grammar rules concerning the use of measure words.
