What's the Weirdest Measure Word in Chinese？

From my point of view, not all measure words are difficult to learn as many Chinese measure words are "container" related, like in English - a "cup" of coffee or a "bowl" of soup. So in this case, you just need to remember these often used nouns like "box", "glass", "plate", "bag" etc. At the same time, you have mastered some very frequently used measure words!

• bottle - 瓶子 - píngzi

• box - 盒子 - hézi

• bowl - 碗 - wǎn

• basin - 盆子 - pénzi

• bag - 袋子 - dàizi

• plate - 盘子 - pánzi

Here are more examples:

• a bottle of beer - 一瓶啤酒 yì píng píjiǔ

• two bowls of rice - 两碗米饭 liǎng wǎn mǐfàn（use 两 instead of 二 here!）

• three basins of water - 三盆水 sān pén shuǐ

• four boxes of biscuits - 四盒饼干 sì hé bǐnggān

• five bags of apples - 五袋苹果 wǔ dài píngguǒ

Let's have a look one by one: 

_{1. 条tiáo}

(1) "long" animals

(2) message (as you can see from the picture, messages appear as long pieces)

a Wechat message - 一条微信 yì tiáo wēixìn

(3) line

a line - 一条线 yì tiáo xiàn

a metro line -  一条地铁线 yì tiáo dìtiě xiàn

(4) river & road

_{2. 件jiàn}

Take a look at the character of "件": Person radical "亻" on the left with cow "牛" on the right, meaning the person decomposing the cow. This is where the current meaning "piece" came from. But we don't use "件" to measure general pieces nowadays. The textbook says "件" is a measure word for clothes. What I want to remind you here is "件" can also be used to measure "thing/matter".

e.g.：我今天太忙了，手头有七八件事要做。

Wǒ jīntiān tài máng le，shǒu tóu yǒu qībā jiàn shì yào zuò。

I'm too busy today. I have 7-8 things to do on hand.

_{3. 班bān}

We all know "班" means "class, shift", but with the meaning of "regular term", "班" could also be used for measuring flights or other schedules of bus, train and ferry.

e.g.: 上海到北京每天有45班高铁。

Shànghǎi dào Běijīng měitiān yǒu sìshíwǔ bān gāotiě。

There are 45 fast trains from Shanghai to Beijing every day.

_{4. 把bǎ}

Most of you have probably known, "把bǎ" is a measure word for things with handle or amount that you can hold in your hand.

一把椅子/剪刀/刀/伞/扇子/小提琴

yì bǎ yǐzi/jiǎndāo/dāo/sǎn/shànzi/xiǎotíqín

a(n) chair/scissors/knife/umbrella/fan/violin

一把土/沙子

yì bǎ tǔ/shāzi

a handful of soil/sands

_{5. 家jiā}

Remember, "家jiā" not only means home! "家" is also a measure word for organizations like shop, company, hospital.

一家店/超市/医院/公司

yì jiā diàn/chāoshì/yīyuàn/gōngsī

a shop/supermarket/ hospital/company

e.g.:

我家附近有3家星巴克。

Wǒ jiā fùjìn yǒu sān jiā Xīngbākè。

There are 3 Starbucks near my home.

You got it? I hope this article has solved you a part of the puzzle about measure words. Now since you know these "secrets", start to practice them in your daily speaking from today!

I have to say…maybe…yes. And certain measure words can have a strong association with the image of items it measures. For example, we use "朵duǒ" to measure "花flower (huā)" and "云cloud (yún)" - these types of beautiful images. Therefore, "朵duǒ" itself also start to convey nice implication. You will see many Chinese girls' nickname is "朵朵".