Let’s pick up where we left off and look at couple more measure words in Chinese language. We have already learned 个 (gè), 只 (zhǐ), 顶 (dǐng), 张 (zhāng) and 条 (tiáo). Today let’s learn when to use the measure words 把 (bǎ) and 本 (běn).
把 (bǎ)
把 (bǎ) is a measure word most commonly used to quantify objects that can be grasped or objects with a handle. Few examples below:
一把刀 (yī bǎ dāo): a knife
一把椅子 (yī bǎ yǐzi): a chair
一把茶壶 (yī bǎ cháhú): a teapot
It can also be used to quantify a handful of something:
一把米 (yī bǎ mǐ): a handful of rice
一把花 (yī bǎ huā): a bunch of flowers
本 (běn)
本 (běn) is a measure word used for books.
一本书 (yī běn shū): a book
一本小说 (yī běn xiǎoshuō): a novel
一本字典 (yī běn zìdiǎn): a dictionary
It can also be used to quantify bound documents or paper products:
一本相册 (yī běn xiàngcè): a photo album
Welcome back :)
ReplyDeleteThanks for a useful post! I found I have gone through 4 phases wrt measure words, while studying Chinese.
ReplyDelete1. What the hell are measure words? If I close my eyes maybe they'll go away.
2. Learn a few basic ones, but probably used 'ge' most of the time anyway :-)
3. Ignored them. They weren't going away, but they didn't really bother me at all. People could understand me anyway.
4. Realising that because I didn't know many measure words, so when reading a sentence, I would get confused what that word was dong there, until I realised it was a measure word. So now I'm actively learning them again :-)
Your 把 (bǎ) is a great example. I was reading a sentence about an umbrella (把雨伞), but I was confused that 把 was being used in the usual context to indicate indirect object - and that really confused me!!
Thank you americanepali
ReplyDeleteGreg, that is an amazing analysis of four phases of measure words. I clearly remember going through atleast three of them. I tried ignoring them too, but like you said they would appear everywhere and I wouldn't know what it was. Thank you for the comment.
Great post! Besides 个, these are probably the two most useful measure words in Chinese.
ReplyDeleteI think it's interesting measure words form such a fundamental part of Chinese, since they ignore a lot of other grammar concepts (e.g. conjugating verbs, articles etc). Of course, from a 'survival Chinese' perspective, measure words are a fairly low priority, since you can make yourself (sort of) understood without them.
I have my own vocab page with more measure words, if you're interested.
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ReplyDelete