Basic Grammar: all 87 lessons free
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量词 — The Word English Only Uses for Coffee
常见量词
You already say a cup of coffee and two slices of bread. Chinese does that for everything — and 个 is the one to fall back on.
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Memory hook
Number + 量词 + noun. Always three pieces.
The ten worth knowing first
Tap each one. The measure word is the middle character every time.
Tap any line to hear it
Memory hook
Never 个 on top of another one
Memory hook
杯 is a cupful. 杯子 is a cup.
Pick the measure word选量词
No pressure — just making it stick.
一____咖啡
yì ____ kāfēi
a cup of coffee
三____杯子
sān ____ bēizi
three cups (the objects)
两____可乐
liǎng ____ kělè
two bottles of cola
一____米饭
yì ____ mǐfàn
a bowl of rice
Your turn — say it
两瓶可乐
two bottles of cola
杯 or 杯子, and never both杯 还是 杯子，以及别叠用
No pressure — just making it stick.
两____衣服
liǎng ____ yīfu
two pieces of clothing
三____照片
sān ____ zhàopiàn
three photos
Your turn — say it
一杯咖啡
a cup of coffee
两____咖啡
liǎng ____ kāfēi
two cups of coffee — which is right?
Your turn — say it
一只狗
one dog
This lesson's characters
Three measure words, built three different ways — a picture, a pointing mark, and a borrowed sound.
the everyday measure word
象drawn from life
Half of 竹, the character for bamboo. A bamboo plant splits into stalks, and one stalk was how you counted them. It is now the measure word for almost anything with no better one — and the one to reach for when the right one will not come.
measure word for books; root
指a pointer
Take 木, a tree, and draw one short stroke across the bottom. The stroke is not a thing — it points at where the roots are. Same trick as 上 and 下 from your first 汉字 lesson. 本 means root, then origin, then the original copy of a text — and from there, the word for counting bound volumes.
cup; a cupful
形meaning + sound
木 on the left, because the first cups were carved out of wood — the same 木 that stands inside 本. 不 bù on the right is there for its sound and nothing else. Two characters this lesson share that 木: one points at a tree's root, one holds what you drink.
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
- Count five things around you out loud, with the right measure word. Where it will not come, say 个 and move on.
- 杯 or 杯子? Look at what you are holding and decide which one you mean.
- Next lesson puts 哪 in front of all of these — which cup, which book, which dog.