Chinese Measure Word Dictionary

What a measure word is, and why Chinese needs one

English says « three books ». Chinese cannot: between the number and the noun, the language requires a third word, the measure word — 三本书, sān běn shū. It works like « three sheets of paper » or « two slices of bread », except that Chinese applies it to everything: a book, a car, a dog, a letter, a mountain. They are also called classifiers.

The order never changes: number + measure word + noun. It holds after a demonstrative too — 这条路, zhè tiáo lù, « this road » — and after 几 jǐ, « how many, a few ».

Choosing the right one

A measure word follows the shape or the nature of the thing, not its meaning: 条 tiáo for long, flexible things (a road, a river, a fish, a pair of trousers), 张 zhāng for flat ones (a sheet, a ticket, a table), 辆 liàng for vehicles, 本 běn for bound volumes, 位 wèi for people one speaks of with respect. That is why one noun may take several, depending on what is meant, and why the answer above sometimes lists two or three.

When in doubt, 个 gè almost always works: it is the general measure word, the one a child uses before learning the others. It never makes a sentence unintelligible — only less accurate.

What this tool knows, and where it comes from

Type a word in Chinese characters — simplified or traditional —, in pinyin, or plainly in English: 5 690 words have a measure word on record here. Every answer states where it comes from, because they are not worth the same: attested by the dictionary when it comes from the lexicographic record, attested by usage when a real sentence shows it — that sentence is then displayed —, and likely when it is inferred from words of the same family: a Chinese compound takes the measure word of its head, and 公共汽车 « bus » takes 辆 just as 车 « car » does.