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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]
tā He 打 dǎ hit 人。 rén person 他 打 人。 tā dǎ rén He hit person He hits someone. Chinese can also be considered a topic-prominent language: there is a strong preference for sentences that begin with the topic, usually "given" or "old" information; and end with the comment, or "new" information. Certain modifications of the basic subject–verb–object order are permissible and ...
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.
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 .
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However, the terminological distinction between classifiers and measure words is often blurred – classifiers are commonly referred to as measure words in some contexts, such as Chinese language teaching, and measure words are sometimes called mass-classifiers or similar. [14] [15]