Basic Grammar: all 87 lessons free
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多 — And Then Some
概数“多” — 还带个零头
四十多本书 finally gets its grammar. Round number: 多 before the measure word. Broken number: after it. Either way — and then some.
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Memory hook
数＋多＋量词 · 数＋量词＋多
Where 多 stands
Tap each line and watch 多's position — in front of the measure word after round numbers, behind it after broken ones.
Tap any line to hear it
Where does 多 stand?「多」站哪儿？
No pressure — just making it stick.
我每天学习一个____小时汉语。
Wǒ měitiān xuéxí yí gè ____ xiǎoshí Hànyǔ.
I study Chinese for an hour and a bit every day.
我爷爷今年八十____。
Wǒ yéye jīnnián bāshí ____.
My grandpa is eighty-something this year.
这个西瓜二十五____。
Zhège xīguā èrshíwǔ ____.
This watermelon is twenty-five jin and a bit.
Which answer belongs at the market stall?
Which exact age fits what you heard?
Your turn — say it
现在十二点多。
It's a bit past twelve.
Your turn — say it
黄瓜两块多一斤。
Cucumbers are two-kuai-something a jin.
我家有四十____本书。
Wǒ jiā yǒu sìshí ____ běn shū.
My home has forty-something books.
This lesson's characters
The estimate word itself, plus the half and the jin it measures with.
many; and then some
会two ideas joined
Two 夕 — the crescent moon of early evening — stacked one on the other. One dusk, then another dusk: the days pile up, and piling up is what 多 means. You have been saying it since 多少 — 'many-few?' — where it named the top of the scale; now it works alone, riding behind a number as the polite word for 'and I stopped counting there'.
half
会two ideas joined
The 八 at the top is not the number here but its older self — two strokes pulling apart, the ancient sign for dividing. Underneath stands an ox. Splitting an ox down the middle was the old picture of a fair half, and 半 has meant half ever since: 半个多小时, half an hour and change. Look for the ox horns in the two dots on top.
jin — half a kilo
象drawn from life
This is a drawing of an axe — blade on the left, bent handle on the right — and inside other characters it still chops: 新 'new' once meant freshly cut wood. The market weight came by borrowing: the axe's name was hired for the weight unit, the same second-job story as 只 and 几. Today one 斤 is exactly half a kilo, and it — not the kilogram — is how Chinese markets weigh: 二十五斤多的西瓜, 两块多一斤的黄瓜.
Take these with you
Everything worth taking away. Tap any line to hear it.
Words 生词
Characters 汉字
Before you go课后回顾
- What time is it right now? Answer without looking properly: X点多.
- The rule in one breath: round number, 多 before the measure word; broken number, 多 after it.
- You now own both fuzzy words. 几 guesses what it never counted; 多 rounds down what it did. 四十多本书 has no secrets left.