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individual things, people — generic measure word (usage of this classifier in conjunction with any noun is generally accepted if the person does not know the proper classifier) 根: gēn gan1: gan1 kun thin, slender, pole, stick objects (needles 針 / 针, pillars 支柱, telegraph poles, matchsticks, etc.); strands 絲 / 丝 (e.g. hair ...
In Chinese, a numeral cannot usually quantify a noun by itself; instead, the language relies on classifiers, commonly also referred to as measure words. [note 2] When a noun is preceded by a number, a demonstrative such as this or that, or certain quantifiers such as every, a classifier must normally be inserted before the noun. [1]
The corresponding Chinese term is liàngcí (simplified Chinese: 量词; traditional Chinese: 量詞), which can be directly translated as "quantity word". Most measure words in English correspond to units of measurement or containers, and are themselves count nouns rather than grammatical particles :
Chinese grammar requires the use of classifiers (measure words) when a numeral is used together with a noun to express a quantity. For example, "three people" is expressed as 三 个 人 ; 三 個 人 ; sān ge rén , "three ( ge particle) person", where 个 / 個 ge is a classifier .
The Chinese word for metre is 米 mǐ; this can take the Chinese standard SI prefixes (for "kilo-", "centi-", etc.). A kilometre, however, may also be called 公里 gōnglǐ, i.e. a metric lǐ. In the engineering field, traditional units are rounded up to metric units. For example, the Chinese word 絲 (T) or 丝 (S) sī is used to express 0.01 mm.
Lin's main claim "to have solved at one stroke the problem of Chinese grammar by classifying words as nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs and prepositions, would need some justifying, since it is ultimately based on the premise that Chinese is the same as Latin", and a scheme that is only a "pis-aller should not be presented as a revelation". [24]
The word picul appeared as early as the mid 9th century in Javanese. In modern Malay , pikul is also a verb meaning 'to carry on the shoulder'. In the early days of Hong Kong as a British colony, the stone (石, with a Cantonese pronunciation given as shik ) was used as a measurement of weight equal to 120 catties or 160 pounds (72.6 kg ...
A cun (Chinese: 寸 ts'wun; Pinyin cùn IPA |mi=), often glossed as the Chinese inch, is a traditional Chinese unit of length.Its traditional measure is the width of a person's thumb at the knuckle, whereas the width of the two forefingers denotes 1.5 cun and the width of four fingers (except the thumb) side-by-side is 3 cuns. [1]