Words and Sentences – Learn Chinese with Me

It’s curious that in some languages some nouns are viewed as femine and others as masculine. How strange it is to the tell a Spanish-speaking child that a tree is a masculine, and a table is femine.

The difference between one language and another certainly shows how differently we perceive the world. There is no such thing as one thing being femine and another masculine in the Chinese language. However, as a keen observer of nature, we see shapes and sizes and lengths and widths as we look at things they exist in nature.

In this lesson, we are going to learn 量词 ( liàngcí) measure words.

There is a measure word for every thing(noun) in Chinese, and the most common one is 个 gè. The character came from the image of a slender, standing, erect bamboo. If you did not know the proper measure word for a noun, you would not be far wrong by using 个. It is the measure word for person, and many other things:

一个人 yīgè rén, a person

一个鼻子yīgè bízi，a nose

一个苹果yīgè píngguǒ, an apple

一个国家yīgè guójiā, a country

There is a special measure word for tree,树: 棵, 一棵树 yī kē shù; a special measure word for flower 花: 朵: 一朵花 yī duǒ huā.

We see fishes as long and flat things, and for those things we have a measure word: 条: 一条鱼 yītiáo yú.

只 zhī, is a common measure word and the character came from the image of a bird or a chicken, and it’s used as the measure word for, of course, chicken, bird, and other small or household animals. Curiously, it’s also the measure word for your hands and feet:

一只鸟 yī zhǐ niǎo，a bird

一只鸡 yī zhǐ jī，a chicken

一只狗 yī zhǐ gǒu，a dog

一只猫 yī zhǐ māo，a cat

两只手 liǎng zhī shǒu，two hands

一只脚 yī zhǐ jiǎo, a foot

片 piàn, itself means “piece” and looks a flat “piece”, is the measure word for tree leaves, or things look like tree leaves: a slice of bread or slice of watermelon.

一片树叶 yīpiàn shùyè, a tree leaf

一片面包 yīpiàn miànbāo, a slice of bread

一片西瓜 yīpiàn xīguā, a slice of watermelon

There are also, like in English, containers for measure words: cup, bowl, box, bottle…

一杯茶 yībēi chá, a cup of tea

一碗米饭 yī wǎn mǐfàn, a bowl of rice

一盒豆奶 yī hé dòunǎi, a box of soy milk

一瓶水 yī píng shuǐ, a bottle of water

In this lesson, we learned the basics of measure words and how the Chinese have observed nature, how they measured and described things: as a variety of shapes and sizes, and other characteristics:

一个人，一朵花，一棵树，一只鸟，一杯茶，一个国家。

In this lesson we are going to learn four pronouns: he, she, it and they.

If you have talked with a Chinese person, you probably have noticed that we frequently make the mistake of messing up pronouns. We would say something like: I met a lady today and he said…..

Because in our mind we do not differ “he” or “she”, because they pronounce exaclty the same in Chinese: tā.

So if a Chinese person refers to a third person with pronouns, you would not know the person’s gender, though you often could learn it from the context.

Though the pronunciation is the same, the written characters are different. 他 tā, he, has the person radical on its left side while 她 tā, she, has woman radical on its left side.

他是一个很好的人。Tā shì yīgè hěn hǎo de rén: he is a very good person.

她喜欢吃苹果。 Tā xǐhuān chī píngguǒ: she likes to eat apples.

它 tā, it, has the roof radical on the top, and it’s said the bottom is the shape of a snake or a worm: imagine an ancient person found a long snake under their roof and screamed out: tā!

它是一只狗。Tā shì yī zhī gǒu: it is a dog.

我 wǒ–the Chinese word for “I”–is defensive: the right part of this word is a weapon. Perhaps at that time of kinship and harsh living, one had to defend oneself. Tā ( 他，她，它)–the word for “he, she, it”–also means “others” whom you had to defend yourself against.

他们 tā men, they, you could see that here we used “he” 他, in this plural form to mean two or more people, unless of course when every one of this group is female, then you use 她们. In spoke form though, this matters very little, as they pronounce the same.

他们爱唱歌。Tāmen ài chànggē: they love singing.