Questions about measure words
silentnoise
November 10, 2008, 10:30 PM posted in General DiscussionHi folks, could someone help me with some measure words.
The course I'm using at the moment in conjunction with CPod is teaching the word egg as: yi2 ge ji1 dan4 but my Chinese friend says the measure word he was taught at school was yi2 li4 ji1 dan4.
Likewise, he says that yi2 ge ping2 guo3 should be yi2 li4 ping2 guo3.
I'm really confused, can someone please help.
bababardwan
November 11, 2008, 01:30 AMsilentnoise,
There is a Qingwen on measure words here.Some fellow poddies have listed some of them in the discussion also.
silentnoise
November 11, 2008, 03:42 PMThanks guys, this is a big help.
michaelrow
November 19, 2008, 11:23 AMHere's a long list of measure words
qiuqiuwoniu
December 09, 2008, 06:46 AM广东话里大部分圆的东西都用粒，比如一粒鸡蛋，一粒篮球
普通话里面，修饰的是小的圆形的东西，比如一粒米，一粒沙
一个苹果，两个苹果，这样说
一般颗粒状的说颗，比如说一颗石榴籽
pearltowerpete
November 11, 2008, 01:16 AMHi silentnoise,
Don't worry too much about measure words. It's important to have them. And in a perfect world you would match the measure word to the properties of the thing being described-- 条 for long thin things, 张 for flat things, etc. But if you can only resort to the default 个 that's not a huge problem.
The measure word your friend is referring to is 粒 li4,
for something grain-like. Note the "rice radical" on the left, which gives a hint about meaning, while the 立 on the right provides sound.
For eggs, pearls, etc. I am more likely to hear 颗 ke1, which should be used for little round things.
Try your best to learn the correct measure words, but rest assured that even native speakers often get lazy and fall back on 个.