Chinese Numbers Explained

Know Your Classifiers

Classifiers, or "measure words"
量词liàng cí
, are used for all nouns in Mandarin. Anytime you say a number of something, you have to use a measure word in front of the noun. There are lots of measure words and though they often follow some patterns, for the most part you just have to memorize them. So that's what this page is for! Of course, you can get by just knowing the mother of all measure words:
, but to really master Mandarin you should learn at least the most common ones, because you are going to hear them a *lot*.

First review the classifier list here: Classifier List

Then review common nouns and their classifiers: Review Common Nouns

Finally practice reading phrases with a random number/classifier/noun:Reading Practice

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