Newbie: This?

Hennie
 December 08, 2010, 04:56 PM posted in General Discussion

Hello All, Total Newbie here! Please tell me if zhè and zhège is fully interchangeable to say "this"?

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flibberdie
 December 08, 2010, 05:43 PM

No, they aren't fully interchangeable because 个 ge4 might not be the correct measure word for the noun that follows. 

Patti

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John
 December 09, 2010, 01:57 AM

As a Newbie, you definitely don't need to worry about that right now.  I would stick with "zhège" for now, and later on you'll learn the proper measure words to use in place of "ge," but it won't hamper communication in the meantime.

Example:

"this car"

You can say "这个车" (zhè ge chē) and be understood just fine, even though it should actually be "这辆车" (zhè liàng chē).