Mõõtmesõnad

Mõõtmesõnad, often translated as "measure words" or "classifiers," are a common feature in many East Asian languages, including Mandarin Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese. They are words that must be used when counting or referring to specific nouns. Unlike in English, where we might say "a piece of paper" or "a slice of bread," in languages with measure words, a specific classifier is tied to the noun's category.

For example, in Mandarin Chinese, when counting flat objects like paper, you would use the measure word "张" (zhāng). So, one sheet of paper is "一张纸" (yī zhāng zhǐ). For a person, you would use "个" (gè) or sometimes "位" (wèi) for more respectful contexts, resulting in "一个人" (yī gè rén) for one person. For animals, "只" (zhī) is commonly used, so "一只猫" (yī zhī māo) means one cat.

The system of measure words can be complex, with many different classifiers for various types of nouns, including long cylindrical objects, small round objects, books, vehicles, and many more. The choice of measure word is not arbitrary; it often reflects the inherent characteristics or traditional categorization of the object being counted. Mastering these measure words is a crucial step for learners of languages that utilize them.