Learning Chinese - Measure words

Backstory: At the beginning of this year I thought that I need to do something that will distract my mind from coding, so learning a totally different language seemed like the perfect thing. After doing some research about different languages and cultures, I decided to go with Chinese (Mandarin).

When it comes to conjugate a verb, Chinese is quite easy: THERE ARE NO RULES. Verbs never change their form, it doesn’t matter if it’s an action that already happened or that is currently happening or if it’s the first person talking or the third: verbs remain the same.

The order structure is the same as in English: subject + predicate (verb) + object.

Words also don’t change their form if they are at singular or plural (you just add an extra word). So, to express plural you can do it either by:

• using numbers: 三只猫 (Sān zhī māo) - three cats
• adding 们 (Men) - this is only used for pronouns and nouns related to persons. Example: 我们 (Wǒmen) - we; 学生们 (Xuéshēngmen) - students
• using measure words

And this is were things get more complicated (as there are many measure words and not all of them make a lot of sense).

The most common word for measurement is 个 (gè) and is mostly used when referring to people or other non-specific items. Example: 四个人 (Sì gèrén) - four people. The good news is that it can replace other measure words if you don’t know them (so basically you can use it anywhere).

张 (zhāng) is a measure word used to describe flat objects, like beds, tables, tickets, pictures. Example: 三张床 (Sān zhāng chuáng) - three beds.

间 (jiān) is a measure word that describes any sort of room: 三间卧室 (Sān jiān wòshì) - three bedrooms.

只 (zhī) - this measure word is mostly used for animals and birds: 四只猫 (Sì zhī māo) - four cats. But it can also be used for some utensils, vessels.

条 (tiáo) is used for long thin things, such as ribbons, rivers, fish, roads, trousers etc. - 三条鱼 (Sāntiáo yú) - three fish.

双 (shuāng) - describes everything that comes in a pair: a pair of shoes - 一双鞋 (Yīshuāng xié).

瓶 (píng) - which means bottle: 三瓶啤酒 (Sānpíng píjiǔ) - three bottles of beer

杯 (bēi) is translated as glass: 一杯牛奶 (Yībēi niúnǎi) - a glass of milk

These are only a few measure words used in Chinese (and the most common ones) but there are many more.