Cantonese Grammar Lesson 7
Measure Words & Specifiers

Measure Words in Use

The most obvious use of measure words is in counting or specifying nouns.  Where in English we only need a specifier to say "a car", "3 cars", "that car", "each car", etc., Cantonese requires a specifier and a measure word.  Additionally, Cantonese can use reduplication with measure words to refer to a class of items.

Note that if no specifier is given, it is assumed that there is only one.  Also, when the number yih 二 "2" would be the specifier, it is always replaced by /leuhng/ 兩 "a couple".

Also note that the plural marker -di- 啲/D is used to specify an unknown quantity.  It generally cannot be used with a specific number or with /muih/ 每 since it specifies "each and all."  The exception of -yat- "1", which is a special case where the contrast is used no mean "one or more."

Reduplication can refer to all existing objects of a type, or to all objects in a particular context.

Notes and Additional Uses

• There are many more measure words than those listed here.  This is not intended to be a comprehensive list.  Some measure words are only used for one or two nouns.  It is suggested that you learn the proper measure word for an object when first learning that object as a new vocabulary word.
• If an object is already understood by speaker and hearer it can be replaced by a specifier and measure word.  The measure word acts much like a pronoun.  For example, if two people are using different colored pens one could say to the other "/bei/ /go/ \ji\ /ngoh/" ("give me that") instead of "/bei/ /go/ \ji\ -bat- /ngoh/" ("give me that pen") and it would be grammatically correct.
• Measure words can replace the particle ge (see Grammar Lesson 5) to show possession and relation from one noun to another.  Example: My pen can be written "/ngoh/ \ji\ -bat-" instead of "/ngoh/ ge -bat-"
• Measure words can be used to show fractional numbers.  Generally this is used with go 個 when working with money and time as most other measure words are not used with objects that are readily divisible.  (see Skills Lesson 3)
• Some measure words act as both nouns and measure words.  In such cases they can usually be measured in turn by the general measure word "go", although it is not required.  For example, the command "give me that cup" can be expressed either "/bei/ /go/ go -bui- /ngoh/" or "/bei/ /go/ -bui- /ngoh/".
• Many items have more than one measure word (example: \che\ 車 can be measured by bouh 部, ga 架, or /leuhng/ 輛), and many measure words can be applied to almost any object (e.g. -di-, deui, gauh, and any of the container measures).
• The "default" measure word is go 個.  Many words that have a more specific classifier can still use, go.  Often times native speakers will be casual/lazy and use go instead of the correct classifier for less frequently used items, but that is not license to indiscriminately use go in place of correct measure words.  A non-native may perceived to be making an error in places where a native is just using a more casual register.  One should only imitate native short-cuts if they appear to be consistent.
• While you can generally state that a measure words has a certain description, it does not mean that all objects fitting that description can be measured by that measure word.  For example, "snake" and "dragon" are both animals, but they are not measured by the measure word for animals (jek 隻), instead they are measured by the measure word for "long, skinny objects" (\tiuh\ 條).
• -ni-,  /go/, -bin-, and -di- are Cantonese specific words which have Cantonese dialectal characters.  (The character for -bin- is shown since it is a common character in standard Chinese.)  These characters have the written equivalents of je 這, /nah/ 那, \nah\ 哪, and \se\ 些 respectively.