Basic Grammar: all 87 lessons free
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几 & 多少 — Two Ways to Ask How Many
几 & 多少 — 问数量的两种方式
几 expects a small answer and never drops its measure word. 多少 expects nothing and needs nothing.
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Memory hook
几 + 量词 + noun · 多少 (+量词) + noun
Her questions, and the answers they expect
Tap any line. Notice: every 几 has a measure word glued behind it; 多少 walks straight up to the noun.
Tap any line to hear it
Ask about the amount看图问数量
No pressure — just making it stick.
How many watermelons do you want to buy?
Tap the tiles in order — it checks itself when the sentence is complete. Tap a placed tile to take it back.
Your sentence
你家有____床？
nǐ jiā yǒu ____ chuáng？
How many beds do you have at home?
How many books do you have at home?
Tap the tiles in order — it checks itself when the sentence is complete. Tap a placed tile to take it back.
Your sentence
你想喝____啤酒？
nǐ xiǎng hē ____ pí jiǔ？
How many glasses of beer do you want?
How many people are in your company?
Tap the tiles in order — it checks itself when the sentence is complete. Tap a placed tile to take it back.
Your sentence
你要____桃子？
nǐ yào ____ táo zi？
How many jin of peaches do you want?
这个____？
zhè ge ____？
How much is this?
Who is being asked?
This lesson's characters
The two question words themselves — both with borrowed shapes and good stories.
how many; several
象drawn from life
This shape is a drawing of a small side table — two legs and a top, and read jī it still means exactly that: 茶几 is a tea table. The old word for 'how many' was the much busier 幾; when writing was simplified, that character was not redrawn but replaced — the little table was standing nearby, sounded right, and got the job. So when you ask 几杯, you are technically asking 'how many cups' with a piece of furniture.
few, little
指a pointer
Take 小 small — three little grains — and shave one more stroke off it: even less than small. That is 少, few. So 多少 is literally 'many-few': Chinese asks a quantity by naming both ends of the scale and letting you pick the point. The same pairing builds 大小, 'big-small' — size itself.
years of age
会two ideas joined
A mountain over an evening. The ancient form 歲 named the planet Jupiter, which takes twelve years to walk once around the sky — one Chinese zodiac cycle — so the star that measured years came to mean the years themselves. The simplified shape keeps a mountain standing over the dusk: seasons passing behind a peak, one 岁 at a time.
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
- Look around the room and ask 几 about something small — 几把椅子？ — and 多少 about something big: 这个房子多少钱？
- 几 never lets go of its measure word. If you cannot find the right one, 个 still saves you.
- Next time you buy anything, the question is already yours: 这个多少钱？