Chinese measure word picker for 97 common nouns (一本书 / 一只猫 / 一双鞋 / 一辆车...): the main measure word, the others the dictionary accepts, and examples. Search in Chinese, English or pinyin.
Chinese Measure Word Picker (量词选择器)
How to use
Enter a noun
Chinese in either script (书 or 書), a counted phrase (一本书), English (book, dogs) or pinyin (shu, laoshi) all work.
See the main measure word and the others
Many nouns take more than one: fish take 条 or 尾, and chopsticks take 双, 根 or 把 depending on what you count. Pairings marked MOE appear in an example in Taiwan's Ministry of Education Revised Mandarin Chinese Dictionary.
Read the examples
Each example is built as "一 + measure word + noun" in the page's script, ready to copy.
Or look up a measure word
Type 把 or "cup" to list the nouns that measure word counts.
Measure words (量词): the word between the number and the noun
In Chinese a number cannot attach straight to most nouns: not 一书 (one book) or 三猫 (three cats), but 一本书 and 三只猫. The exception is nouns that are units themselves, such as 天 and 年: 三天, 两年. There is no total count of measure words that can be checked, but mainland China's HSK examination syllabus (Center for Language Education and Cooperation, November 2025) tags 160 distinct words as measure words, 18 of them at level 1. English needs something similar only for mass nouns and groups: a glass of water, a pair of shoes, a herd of cattle.
5 logical groupings
(1) Shape: 张 (flat), 条 (long), 根 (thin), 片 (slice), 块 (chunk). (2) Kind of thing: 本 (books), 辆 (vehicles), 艘 (ships), 架 (aircraft), 把 (things with a handle). (3) Containers: 杯, 碗, 瓶, 桶, which the exam syllabus calls "borrowed" measure words (借用名量词). (4) Groups: 双 (pair), 对 (couple), 副 (set), 套 (suit). (5) Actions: 次, 回, 趟, 遍 (verbal measure words).
"个 (gè) is the measure word every listener understands and the usual fallback, but it is not universal: it cannot stand in for a container or a unit (一杯水, never 一个水), and for many nouns the dictionary gives a specific word (一条鱼, 一张纸)."
Common mistakes
(1) "一只老师": 只 counts birds and beasts; a person takes 位 or 个. (2) "一个鱼": the dictionary gives 条 or 尾 (一条鱼, 一尾鱼). (3) "一个水": water is not counted one by one, so say 一杯水 or 一瓶水. (4) 一双 vs 一只鞋: a pair of shoes vs a single shoe. (5) 一月 vs 一个月: 一月 is January; one month is 一个月.
This tool's scope
97 common nouns, each with its main measure word, the others the dictionary accepts, and computed examples. It is not a complete dictionary: for a noun it does not list, 个 is the fallback, with the limits above.
个 does about half the counting; specific measure words do the rest
The HSK exam syllabus tags 160 distinct words as measure words: 18 at level 1, 43 by level 3 and 69 by level 4.
We counted three native-Chinese treebanks from Universal Dependencies (Wikipedia, translated news, Hong Kong film subtitles and LegCo). In 691 places where a measure word counts a noun, 个 filled 47.3%; in 122 such places in essays by learners of Chinese it filled 68.0%. These are small, written samples.
位 (wèi) counts people and, in the MOE dictionary's words, "usually carries respect" (多含敬意): 一位老师, 一位客人. It is the polite choice; the dictionary does not call it required.
Animal measure words follow kind, not size: 只 for birds and beasts; 头 for livestock such as cattle, donkeys, mules, sheep and pigs, and even bulbs of garlic; 匹 for horses, mules and donkeys, and for bolts of cloth; 条 for long things, with 尾 also used for fish.
双 vs 对: the dictionary gives 双 for things that come as a pair (一双鞋子, 两双筷子) and 对 for paired people or things (三对夫妻 three married couples, 一对镯子 a pair of bracelets).
本 first meant the root and stem of a plant. The image of bamboo slips bound into a book belongs to 册 (冊): the dictionary glosses it as bamboo slips strung into a book (編綴竹簡成書為冊). Both count books today.
辆 vs 列: 辆 counts vehicles (一辆车); 列 counts things standing in a row, and the dictionary's example is 一列火车, a train.
家 (jiā) counts families and households as well as shops and large firms (一家公司, 一家医院); the dictionary's example is 住户不满十家, "fewer than ten households".
枚 (méi) counts small objects, and the dictionary's examples are a coin and stamps (一枚铜板, 两枚邮票); it also counts rockets and bombs (两枚火箭, 一枚炸弹).
Some time words need 个: 一个月 is one month but 一月 is January, and an hour is 一个小时. 天 and 年 are units themselves, so 三天, 两年.
Frequently Asked Questions
Use 个 (gè). The dictionary defines it as the unit for individual people or things, everyone understands it, and in the native sample above it counted about half of all counted nouns. Two limits: it cannot stand in for a container or unit (一杯水, not 一个水), and for many nouns the dictionary gives a specific word (一条鱼, 一张纸).
位 counts people and the dictionary says it usually carries respect, so it is the usual choice for teachers, guests and elders. 个 is neutral. Native writers use both for the same kind of person: in the treebanks we counted, 人 took 个 14 times and 位 twice.
97 common nouns: people, animals, long things, things with a handle, flat things, books, containers, pairs, matters, vehicles and buildings. It is not a complete dictionary.
Cantonese, Hokkien and the other Chinese languages have their own systems. This tool lists Mandarin measure words only.
The measure word is the container: 杯 a glass, 瓶 a bottle, 罐 a can. They are different amounts, so the word you choose says how much you mean.
(1) By shape (张 flat, 条 long); (2) by common pairings (本 books, 辆 vehicles, 张 paper); (3) by exam level: in our native sample, the measure words the HSK syllabus introduces by level 4 covered 91% of measure word uses. This tool is for quick lookup.
For action counts: 看一次 (look once), 来一趟 (come once), 读一遍 (read through once), 试一下 (give it a try). A parallel system to noun measure words.
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Measure word senses, examples and Taiwan forms: Taiwan Ministry of Education, Revised Mandarin Chinese Dictionary (重編國語辭典修訂本). Which measure words are taught when: the HSK examination syllabus. The 个 shares: our count of the Universal Dependencies treebanks GSDSimp, PUD and HK (native) and CFL (learners), all CC BY-SA.
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