Learn Chinese: grammar of Unit 6

The classifiers 个 and 口

In Chinese, a number is never placed directly before a noun. You must insert a word called a classifier. As its name suggests, it places the noun into a category: flat objects, animals, people, and so on.

The classifier for human beings is 个 gè:
一个人 yí gè rén: one person
两个孩子 liǎng gè háizi: two children
七个人 qī gè rén: seven people

There are many classifiers. Some words have no particular one: 个 then serves as the default classifier. It is the safety net of spoken Chinese, and it rescues a great many sentences.

The classifier is also required with the demonstratives 这，那 (this, that) and with their question word 哪 (which?):
这个人 zhè gè rén: this person
那个学生 nà gè xuéshēng: that student, over there
哪个人？ Nǎ gè rén? Which person?

To count the members of a family, you use the classifier 口 kǒu (mouth):
我家有四口人。 Wǒ jiā yǒu sì kǒu rén. My family has four people.
你家有几口人？ Nǐ jiā yǒu jǐ kǒu rén? How many people are there in your family?

Use of the number 两

There are two ways to say "two" in Chinese:

  • 二 èr: the digit, used for counting (1, 2, 3…), in phone numbers and floor numbers;
  • 两 liǎng: the number, used before a classifier.

Examples:
两个孩子 liǎng gè háizi: two children
两口人 liǎng kǒu rén: two people, in a family

The verb 有 and its negation 没有

有 yǒu means "to have" or "there is/are". Its structure is that of all other verbs:

Examples from the dialogue:
我有两个孩子。 Wǒ yǒu liǎng gè háizi. I have two children.
你有几个孩子？ Nǐ yǒu jǐ gè háizi? How many children do you have?

Examples:
我没有弟弟。 Wǒ méiyǒu dìdi. I don't have a younger brother.
你没有弟弟吗？ Nǐ méiyǒu dìdi ma? You don't have a younger brother?

The conjunction 和

和 hé means "and". It links nouns or noun phrases.

Examples from the dialogue:
一个女儿和一个儿子 yí gè nǚ'ér hé yí gè érzi: a daughter and a son
我的爸爸、妈妈、一个哥哥、一个姐姐、两个妹妹和我。 Wǒ de bàba, māma, yí gè gēge, yí gè jiějie, liǎng gè mèimei hé wǒ. My dad, my mom, one elder brother, one elder sister, two younger sisters and me.

The enumeration comma 、

You may have noticed the sign 、 in the dialogue, called 顿号 dùnhào. It is the enumeration comma, the one that separates the items of a list, where English uses an ordinary comma.

Example: 我的爸爸、妈妈、一个哥哥、一个姐姐、两个妹妹和我。 Wǒ de bàba, māma, yí gè gēge, yí gè jiějie, liǎng gè mèimei hé wǒ.

The ordinary comma ，, the 逗号 dòuhào, separates the clauses of a sentence. The two are not interchangeable.

Absence of 的 in 你家

The dialogue says 你家有几口人？ and not 你的家有几口人？.

When the relationship between the modifier and the modified is very close (family, body parts, intimacy), the 的 is often dropped:
你家: your family, your home
我妈妈: my mom
他爸爸: his/her dad