Chinese Measure Words (Summary)

Unlike English, Chinese language doesn’t have the plural forms of nouns, but it uses measure words to count nouns. And a noun phrase usually follows this structure: numeral + measure word + noun, for example: “one person” is “一个人” and “two dogs” is “两只狗”.

For different nouns, the measure words can be different. Learning Chinese measure words is important, if one wants to speak Chinese correctly. Here is a summary of Chinese measure words for different types of nouns.

Measure Words for Persons

for respectable persons

Measure Words for Animals

Measure Words for Body Parts

Measure Words for Plants

Measure Words for Fruits

Measure Words for Food

Measure Words for Table Wares

Measure Words for Daily life Uses

Measure Words for Clothes and Decorations

Measure words for Buildings

Measure Words for Vehicles

Measure Words for Tools

Measure Words for Stationery

Measure Words for Artistic Works

There are a lot more measure words in Chinese and memorizing them can be challenging work. However, the “almighty” measure word “个” helps make it easier, because most of the time we can replace other measure words with “个”. For example: “一台电视” can also be said “一个电视” and “一张桌子” can also be said “一个桌子”. So, when you do not know the measure word for a specific item, just use “个” instead!
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