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Measure word finder

Type a noun in English, pinyin or Chinese and see the measure word it takes, like 一本书 and 一张桌子.

Type a noun in English, pinyin or Chinese.

    The common measure words

    What is a measure word?

    In Chinese a number can’t go straight before a noun: you say 一本书 (one “volume” of book), not 一书. The word in the middle is the measure word, or classifier. Each noun takes its own, often by its shape: 张 for flat things, 条 for long thin ones, 本 for books.

    What if I don’t know the measure word?

    个 (gè) works for people and most things, and native speakers use it a lot in speech. The right measure word sounds more natural, and some nouns never take 个.

    Where do these come from?

    The measure words the CC-CEDICT dictionary gives each word in the HSK 3.0 lists, levels 1 to 6: 1,493 words in all. A word can take several; the first is usually the most common.

    Why is 一 said yí here?

    一 is said yí before a fourth tone (一个 yí ge, 一件 yí jiàn) and yì before the other tones (一本 yì běn, 一张 yì zhāng).

    More free tools

    How hard is this text?: a text’s HSK level and the words to learn first. Pinyin chart: every syllable, all four tones. Read any Mandarin: point at a word for its meaning.

    Measure words from CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0), for the HSK 3.0 word list. Speakers use others too.