Talk:List of Chinese classifiers

Untitled
I have removed several units which are not classifiers/"measure words" (量词) in their own right. Clearly someone got overenthusiastic in adding entries, and in the process forgetting the difference between units that are purely nouns and those that can function as both nouns and 量词.

Furthermore I have my serious doubts about some of the units I have not removed. I am a native Chinese speaker and yet I would not consider the units of time to be true 量词 - I can't think of a natural way to use them in the construction [number] + [量词] + [noun] except in the rather contrived case of 一刻时间, or by using a construction of the form三小时长的戏剧. It also seems unnatural to me to use units like A.U. (天文单位) in that construction of [number] + [量词] + [noun].

Yet other 量词 are missing, notably units of area and volume; even words like 亩, which have basically no existence outside their function as 量词. AcidFlask (talk) 07:29, 18 January 2011 (UTC)


 * Yes, 畝/亩 is missing from this list (which is still widely used by lots amount of people in countryside, it also exists in idioms and old timers' speaking). Actually I think that a 量詞/量词 that contains more than one 漢字/汉字 (or single 多音節字/多音节字) should be removed from this page anyway, otherwise dozen of verb 動詞/动词 could be added to the list.

Archived talk
This list used to be located at Chinese classifier; much of the relevant talkpage discussion is still there, now archived at Talk:Chinese classifier/Archive 1. r ʨ anaɢ talk/contribs 11:59, 10 August 2009 (UTC)

道 (dào)&mdash;linear projections seems to be listed twice. Is this correct?--Pepsi Lite (talk) 14:38, 20 October 2009 (UTC)
 * It's possible that it was listed in both the classifiers and massifiers sections intentionally, as the distinction is somewhat fuzzy and this word has features of both (for instance, 一道光 is massifier-ish, whereas 一道命令 is more classifier-ish). It is also entirely possible that I just made a mistake when splitting the table, and forgot to delete one or the other. r ʨ anaɢ talk/contribs 14:48, 20 October 2009 (UTC)

What about 带 (帶, dài) for long, ribbon-like objects. It's in the main article (and in my dictionary), but since I am only a learner, I am reluctant to put it in myself. Well written main article by the way.--Pepsi Lite (talk) 10:36, 24 October 2009 (UTC)
 * I don't think that is commonly used. I am Chinese yet I don't ever recall hearing that. 华钢琴49 (TALK) 23:46, 21 March 2010 (UTC)

泡
Just to explain my recent edit: Regarding 泡, there are two separate readings depending on what is being classified. When referring to tea, pào (tone 3) is used. However, when referring to urine, pāo (tone 1) is used. For example, "我需要撒一泡尿" (Wǒ xūyào sā yī pāo niào; "I need to chuck a piss" (informal speech)), or "地上这一泡尿是谁干的？" (Dìshàng zhè yī pāo niào shì sheí gàn de?; "this puddle of urine on the floor, who did it?"). 泡 lists three readings for 泡: pāo, páo, and pào. --  李博杰  &#124; —Talk contribs email 07:21, 7 July 2011 (UTC)

听
Wēi Zhǔbiān (危东亚), ed., et al. (1995), Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, p. 1003, ISBN 9787560007397 calls 听 a (dialectal) classifier, http://www.mdbg.net/chindict/chindict.php?page=worddict&wdrst=0&wdqb=听 and apparently also http://www.zdic.net/zd/zi/ZdicE5Zdic90ZdicAC.htm call 听 a classifier, all of (canned) beverages. As a beginning learner of the Chinese language, I do not consider the sources I have seen thus far convincing enough to add this word as a classifier. Who can judge this more knowledgeably? Thanks!Redav (talk) 22:07, 3 February 2013 (UTC)

岁
Wēi Zhǔbiān (危东亚), ed., et al. (1995), Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, p. 965, ISBN 9787560007397 calls 岁 a classifier, http://www.mdbg.net/chindict/chindict.php?page=worddict&wdrst=0&wdqb=岁 and also http://translate.google.nl/?hl=en&tab=wT#zh-CN/en/岁 call 岁 a classifier, all of years (of age, of crop harvests). Who can judge this more knowledgeably than I can? Thanks!Redav (talk) 22:46, 3 February 2013 (UTC)

Order
I suggest reordering these lists into something like frequency order. Having the "default" 個/个 hidden in the middle is counter-intuitive. The current ordering is alphabetical by pronunciation, but there are multiple pronunciations listed (and many more that are unlisted). I realize that it is hard to get statistics about order, but they could at least be grouped into "most common", "also common" and "less common", possibly alphabetically within groups. LachlanA (talk) 04:00, 21 August 2019 (UTC)