Classifiers: 层、封、件、条、位 and Action Measures
名词量词 — match the noun:
| 量词 | 拼音 | 用于 |
|------|------|------|
| 层 | céng | floors, layers |
| 封 | fēng | letters, sealed items |
| 件 | jiàn | clothing items, matters |
| 条 | tiáo | long thin things (fish, roads, pants) |
| 位 | wèi | persons (polite) |
动量词 — after verbs for actions:
| 量词 | 拼音 | 用于 |
|------|------|------|
| 次 | cì | occurrences (how many times) |
| 遍 | biàn | complete run-through |
| 下 | xià | brief single action |
✅ 一位老师 (one teacher, polite)
✅ 读了两遍 (read through twice completely)
✅ 敲了一下 (knocked once briefly)
Worked examples
| Chinese | Pinyin | English | What it shows |
|---|---|---|---|
| 他给妈妈写了一封信。 | Tā gěi māma xiě le yī fēng xìn. | He wrote a letter to his mother. | 封 (fēng) is the classifier for letters and sealed documents. 一封信 = one letter. |
| 我把这篇文章读了三遍，还是不太懂。 | Wǒ bǎ zhè piān wénzhāng dú le sān biàn, háishi bù tài dǒng. | I read this article three times through completely, but still don't quite understand it. | 遍 (biàn) emphasizes completing the whole action each time. Contrast: 次 counts occurrences without this emphasis. |
| 这栋楼有二十层，我住在十五层。 | Zhè dòng lóu yǒu èrshí céng, wǒ zhù zài shíwǔ céng. | This building has twenty floors; I live on the fifteenth floor. | 层 (céng) is used for floors of a building and also for layers. Both count and ordinal uses are common. |
What you need first
Every topic in GraphChinese names its own prerequisites, and these are the grammar points this one is built on. If a sentence here will not parse, one of them is why.
What this opens up
These patterns list Classifiers among their own prerequisites, so they become readable once this one holds.
Classifiers is one topic of 829. GraphChinese teaches them in prerequisite order, so this pattern reaches you on the day everything it rests on is proven. The whole course, HSK 0 through HSK 6, is $49 once for lifetime access.
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