Measure words

In English, we say one person, two eggs, three birds, etc. In Chinese, a measure word is used between the number and the noun to express the same.

For example, the Chinese for 'one person' is 'yí (one) gè rén (person)'. gè is a measure word here. Similarly, the Chinese for 'two eggs' is 'liǎng (two) gè dàn (eggs)'. Although gè is a very frequently used measure word, there are many other measure words in Chinese, depending on the nouns.

'zhī' is another measure word, commonly used for birds. So, now you can say 'three birds' in Chinese - 'sān (three) zhī niǎo (birds)'.

'tái' is the measure word for machines or equipment, e.g. 'yī tái diàn nǎo' - 'one computer'.

You will come across many measure words as you learn Chinese. You will need to learn them one by one and accumulate a whole collection of measure words.

Numbers - begin to count

In a way, learning to count numbers in Chinese is easier than learning to count in English or French. If you manage to remember how to count from 1 to 10, you can count up to 99. Let's see how it works.

'0' - líng; '1' - yī; '2' - èr; '3' - sān; '4' - sì; '5' - wǔ
'6' - liù; '7' - qī; '8' - bā; '9' - jiǔ; '10' - shí

After that, when you say '11', it's simply '10' and '1', i.e. 'shí yī'. For '12', it's '10' and '2', i.e. 'shí èr'. '13' - 'shí sān', ... '19' - 'shí jiǔ'.

Then, for '20', you say '2' and '10', i.e. 'èr shí'. When it comes to '21', you say '20' and '1', i.e. 'èr shí yī'; '22' - 'èr shí èr'; '23' - 'èr shí sān', '24' - 'èr shí sì'...'29' - 'èr shí  jiǔ'.

...'35' - 'sān shí wǔ', ...'46' - 'sì shí liù', ...'57' - 'wǔ shí qī', ...'68' - 'liù shí bā', ...'77' - 'qī shí qī', ... '88' - 'bā shí bā', ... '99' - 'jiǔ shí jiǔ'.

Well, let's keep it within 100 for now. You can count from 0 to 99 now, can't you?