Measure words in English and Chinese
Group: 2
Presented by: Candy Chan, Carman Cheung, Joseph Lau
Introduction
1. Measure words: refer to the quantities, properties and the reference
entities of a noun
2. (i) English Nouns:
- Countable nouns: entities which can be counted; have singular and
plural forms
- Uncountable nouns: entities which cannot be counted and do not vary
for number
(ii) Chinese Nouns: no clear distinction between countable and
uncountable nouns, singular and plural forms
Focus
- Quantifying nouns
- Articles
- Demonstratives
Body
1. QUANTIFYING NOUNS (CLASSIFIERS)
- refer to quantities of both masses and entities
- modify shape and property of a noun
Differences
- The use of classifiers
English: classifier is not obligatory
e.g. two books, a living
Chinese: classifier is obligatory
e.g. 兩本書 (grammatical)
兩書 (ungrammatical)
Similarities
- The use of “of-phrase”
e.g. a piece of bread
“Piece” is used to describe the shape of the head noun, “bread’.
English countable nouns
(1) Numerals
e.g. three books, twenty girls
(2) Quantifying nouns
e.g. two sets of books, a group of girls
English uncountable nouns: only quantifying nouns
e.g. two rice(s) (ungrammatical)
a bowl of rice / two bowls of rice (grammatical)
- Compare Chinese and English syntactic structure
Numeral
Classifier/
quantifying
noun
一
碗
a
bowl
Head noun
飯
of
rice
Difference in syntactic structure
- an extra word “of” in English noun phrase to link up the two nouns (i.e.
bowl and rice)
2. ARTICLE
Articles: Present in English; absent in Chinese
A. Indefinite article
- to show a new specific entity in discourse
Differences
- article vs number and classifer
English: indefinite article is present
e.g. a cat, an activity
Chinese: number and classifier are used
e.g. 一隻貓, 一項活動
Similarities
- specificity is preserved
a cat = 一隻貓
- singularity
both “a” and “一” show the meaning of “one”
-Compare Chinese and English syntactic structure
Numeral
Classifier/ quantifying Head noun
noun
一
隻
貓
A
Cat
Difference in syntactic structure
An extra classifier is needed in Chinese.
B. Definite article
- to specify the referent of the noun phrase known from the discourse
Difference:
English: definite article is present
e.g. … the accident killed more than 30 people.
Chinese: demonstrative and classifier is optional in some cases
e.g. … (今次)事件做成超過三十人死亡…
Similarities
- specificity is preserved
the accident = (今次)意外
- quantity is shown
…the students are punished = 這些學生被受到懲罰
-Compare Chinese and English syntactic structure
Specifier
Classifier/ quantifying Head noun
noun
(今)
(次)
意外
The
Accident
Difference in syntactic structure
An extra classifier is needed; numeral and classifier are sometimes
optional.
3. Demonstratives
The demonstratives are used as determiners to refer to either people or
objects. They indicate whether the things are near or far from the
speaker .
 English : This , That , These, Those
Chinese: 這 , 那 , 這些 , 那些
 Demonstratives with classifiers
 This , That ( singular nouns or uncountable nouns )
 這 , 那
English:
- This/That + noun
Eg. This book , That boy.
- Specify the unit of the thing  this piece of paper
that bunch of flowers
- Use of classifiers is optional
Chinese:
- Demonstratives + Classifier + Noun
Eg. 這張桌子 , 那本小說
- Sometimes the classifier can be omitted ( eg.那人很討厭 ), but
this does not apply to all cases.
Eg. ‘這戲很精彩’ and ‘我要買那魚’ sounds unnatural.
Eg. 我同呢個人傾計 ( Cantonese ).
 These, Those ( plural nouns )
 這些 , 那些

The use of these demonstratives are similar in English and Chinese.
English: These/ Those + Noun ( Eg. These pens, Those cars )
Chinese: 這些筆 , 那些車輛
- No classifier is needed here and the syntactic structure of these
phrases is the same in both Chinese and English.
- if we mention the quantity of the objects when we use
demonstratives, the classifier will be needed.
- For example, ‘ 這三隻小鳥’ or ‘那幾幅畫’.
Some distinctive features of Classifiers in Chinese:
- There are some special features of Chinese classifiers that cannot be
found in English which is the use of reduplication. Repeating the
classifiers in various ways can express different meanings.
1. reduplicating the classifier after ‘一’
eg
他把一個個杯放在架上 ( He put many cups on the shelf. )
2. 一個一個
eg
學生一個一個進入禮堂 ( The students enter the hall one
by one .)
3. reduplicating the classifier itself
eg.
隻隻貓都好得意 ( All the cats are cute.)
Conclusion





The use of classifiers in English is optional.
In English, the classifiers are used with quantifying nouns or
uncountable nouns.
The use of classifiers in Chinese is obligatory.
In Chinese, a classifier is needed for any noun which is preceded by a
numeral or a demonstrative.
The use of classifiers with articles and demonstratives in the two
languages are different to a great extent.

Reduplication of Chinese classifiers can express different meanings.