Mandarin Measure Words Explained
Mandarin measure words sit between numbers or demonstratives and nouns, and they are essential for natural Chinese noun phrases.
About the author
Luke McLaughlin created Constructing Language after living in Japan and later learning Mandarin Chinese from scratch. The lessons, games, and guides are built from that first-hand learner experience and checked against native-speaker course work with Hiro for Japanese and Xiang for Mandarin Chinese.
- Lived in Japan and studied Japanese through immersion and structured self-study.
- Learned Mandarin Chinese from scratch as an adult learner.
- Created the Construction Method: audio-first sentence building, grammar graphics, and active recall.
- Built Japanese course material with Hiro and Mandarin course material with Xiang, both native-speaker collaborators.
The basic measure-word pattern
A common noun phrase uses number plus measure word plus noun. 个 is the most general measure word, but many nouns prefer a more specific classifier.
- 一个人 means one person.
- 一本书 means one book.
- 一杯水 means one cup of water.
This and that need measure words too
Phrases with 这 and 那 often use the same pattern: demonstrative plus measure word plus noun.
Learn measure words in noun groups
Study a noun with its normal classifier instead of adding classifiers later. This makes natural phrases easier to recall.