{"id":3203,"date":"2018-11-23T18:33:35","date_gmt":"2018-11-23T18:33:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lingo-apps.com\/?p=3203"},"modified":"2019-09-09T07:15:12","modified_gmt":"2019-09-09T07:15:12","slug":"plural-nouns-chinese","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lingo-apps.com\/fr\/plural-nouns-chinese\/","title":{"rendered":"Lesson 24. Three Ways to Express Plural Nouns in Chinese"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Plural
Plural Nouns in Chinese<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Unlike English<\/a> which adds \u2018s\/-es<\/em>\u2019 or Indonesian which reduplicate the nouns<\/a>, Chinese does not modify the nouns to express plural nouns in Chinese. So, how do Chinese turn a noun from singular into a plural? Let\u2019s find out the answer here!<\/p>\n

Use the number along with the counters<\/h3>\n

In Chinese, we use counters between the number<\/a> and a noun to do the counting. We could say both \u2018three cakes<\/em>\u2019 and \u2018three pieces of cakes<\/em>\u2019 in English. However, we can only use \u4e09\u5757\u86cb\u7cd5 (s\u0101n ku\u00e0i d\u00e0ng\u0101o) [literally meaning: three pieces of cake] in Chinese. We have to use the cake counter, \u5757 (ku\u00e0i). In fact, these counters are very specific to what is being counted. One of the most commonly used counters in Chinese is \u4e2a (ge).<\/p>\n

Structure: Number + Counter + Noun<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Examples:<\/p>\n

\u5169\u672c<\/strong>\u5c0f\u8aaa\u3002<\/p>\n

\u4e24\u672c<\/strong>\u5c0f\u8bf4\u3002<\/p>\n

Li\u01ceng b\u011bn<\/strong> xi\u01ceoshu\u014d.<\/p>\n

Two (volumes of) <\/strong>novel.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Note\uff1a we use \u5169 (\u4e24) [li\u01ceng] instead of \u4e8c (\u00e8r) for counting.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u4e09\u676f<\/strong>\u6a59\u6c41\u3002<\/p>\n

\u4e09\u676f<\/strong>\u6a59\u6c41\u3002<\/p>\n

S\u0101n b<\/strong>\u0113<\/strong>i<\/strong> ch\u00e9ngzh\u012b.<\/p>\n

Three (glasses of)<\/strong> orange juice.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u5341\u8f1b<\/strong>\u8dd1\u8eca\u3002<\/p>\n

\u5341\u8f86<\/strong>\u8dd1\u8f66\u3002<\/p>\n

Sh\u00ed li\u00e0ng<\/strong> p\u01ceoch\u0113.<\/p>\n

Ten (pieces of)<\/strong> sports car.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Note: \u8f1b (\u8f86) [li\u00e0ng] is a specific counter for wheeled vehicles.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Using quantifiers<\/h3>\n

Besides, we can also use ambiguous noun quantifier<\/a> to express plurality, such as \u4e00\u9ede (\u4e00\u70b9) [y\u012b di\u01cen] \u2013 a little, \u4e00\u4e9b (y\u012b xi\u0113) \u2013 a few\/some<\/a>, \u5e7e [\u51e0<\/strong>] (<\/strong>j\u01d0)<\/strong> \u2013 several,<\/strong> and so on.<\/p>\n

Structure: Quantifier + Noun<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Examples:<\/p>\n

\u9019\u662f\u6211\u7684\u4e00\u9ede<\/strong>\u5fc3\u610f\u3002<\/p>\n

\u8fd9\u662f\u6211\u7684\u4e00\u70b9<\/strong>\u5fc3\u610f\u3002<\/p>\n

Zh\u00e8 sh\u00ec w\u01d2 de y<\/strong>\u012b<\/strong>di<\/strong>\u01ce<\/strong>n<\/strong> x\u012bny\u00ec.<\/p>\n

This is a little<\/strong> token for you.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u6211\u6709\u4e00\u4e9b<\/strong>\u60f3\u6cd5\u8981\u544a\u8a34\u4f60\u3002<\/p>\n

\u6211\u6709\u4e00\u4e9b<\/strong>\u60f3\u6cd5\u8981\u544a\u8bc9\u4f60\u3002<\/p>\n

W\u01d2 y\u01d2u y<\/strong>\u012b<\/strong>xi<\/strong>\u0113<\/strong> xi\u01cengf\u01ce y\u00e0o g\u00e0os\u00f9 n\u01d0.<\/p>\n

I have a few<\/strong> ideas to tell you.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u8001\u5e2b\u8acb\u5e7e\u500b<\/strong>\u5b78\u751f\u53bb\u4ed6\u5bb6\u88e1\u5403\u665a\u98ef\u3002<\/p>\n

\u8001\u5e08\u8bf7\u51e0\u4e2a<\/strong>\u5b66\u751f\u53bb\u4ed6\u5bb6\u91cc\u5403\u665a\u996d\u3002<\/p>\n

L\u01ceosh\u012b q\u01d0ng j<\/strong>\u01d0<\/strong> g<\/strong>\u00e8<\/strong> xu\u00e9sh\u0113ng q\u00f9 t\u0101 ji\u0101l\u01d0 ch\u012b w\u01cenf\u00e0n.<\/p>\n

The teacher invited several students to go to his house for dinner.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Ultimate\u00a0\u5011 [\u4eec] (men)<\/h3>\n

Remember how to construct plural pronouns in Chinese<\/a>? Attach the word \u5011 [\u4eec] (men)! We can also add the suffix \u5011 [\u4eec] (men) behind the noun, as in \u4eba\u5011 [\u4eba\u4eec] (r\u00e9n men) \u2013 people, \u5b78\u751f\u5011 [\u5b66\u751f\u4eec] (xu\u00e9 sh\u0113ng men) \u2013 students, \u670b\u53cb\u5011 [\u670b\u53cb\u4eec] (p\u00e9ng y\u01d2u men) \u2013 friends, etc. Examples:<\/p>\n

\u5979\u53d7\u5230\u4e86\u4eba\u5011<\/strong>\u7684\u7a31\u8b9a\u3002<\/p>\n

\u5979\u53d7\u5230\u4e86\u4eba\u4eec<\/strong>\u7684\u79f0\u8d5e\u3002<\/p>\n

T\u0101 sh\u00f2ud\u00e0ole r\u00e9nmen<\/strong> de ch\u0113ngz\u00e0n.<\/p>\n

She has been praised by people<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u9019\u662f\u5b78\u751f\u5011<\/strong>\u6700\u671f\u5f85\u7684\u6691\u5047\u3002<\/p>\n

\u8fd9\u662f\u5b66\u751f\u4eec<\/strong>\u6700\u671f\u5f85\u7684\u6691\u5047\u3002<\/p>\n

Zh\u00e8 sh\u00ec xu\u00e9sh\u0113ngmen <\/strong>zu\u00ec q\u00edd\u00e0i de sh\u01d4ji\u00e0.<\/p>\n

This is the summer vacation that students<\/strong> are most looking forward to.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u4ed6\u7279\u5225\u559c\u6b61\u548c\u670b\u53cb\u5011\u4e00\u8d77\u53bb\u90ca\u904a\u3002<\/p>\n

\u4ed6\u7279\u522b\u559c\u6b22\u548c\u670b\u53cb\u4eec\u4e00\u8d77\u53bb\u90ca\u6e38\u3002<\/p>\n

T\u0101 t\u00e8bi\u00e9 x\u01d0hu\u0101n h\u00e9 p\u00e9ngy\u01d2umen y\u012bq\u01d0 q\u00f9 ji\u0101oy\u00f3u.<\/p>\n

He really likes to go for outing with his friends.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Let\u2019s learn English today! Join us at LingoCards<\/a>!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Unlike English which adds \u2018s\/-es\u2019 or Indonesian which reduplicate the nouns, Chinese does not modify the nouns to express plural nouns in Chinese. So, how…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":3204,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[202,209],"class_list":["post-3203","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chinese","tag-nouns","tag-plural","pmpro-has-access"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lingo-apps.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3203","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lingo-apps.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lingo-apps.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lingo-apps.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lingo-apps.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3203"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lingo-apps.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3203\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3977,"href":"https:\/\/lingo-apps.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3203\/revisions\/3977"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lingo-apps.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3204"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lingo-apps.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lingo-apps.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lingo-apps.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}