Measure word: introduction

Measure word, a.k.a. classifier, or counter word, is a key part of speech in Vietnamese. It’s a concept that Vietnamese learners must definitely master, or at least grasp the basics of, to speak natural-sounding Vietnamese.

Concept

Measure words are words that accompany nouns to indicate amounts. A noun can have one or more, but usually one, measure word. The most common measure word in Vietnamese is cái, serving as the measure word for the majority of nouns (at least 80% to be confident). The second most common one is con, the measure word for all animals.

Measure word isn’t really a foreign concept to English; in fact, it’s actually very common. We use them to quantify mass nouns: “one bottle of water”, “two glasses of water”; we don’t say “one water”, “two waters”, it doesn’t make sense. The difference, to which you should pay special attention, is that Vietnamese also uses measure words for count nouns, like “apple”, “chair”, or “dog”. In Vietnamese, we don’t simply say “one apple”, “two apples”, but rather “one [measure-word] apple”, “two [measure-word] apples”.

Measure words can also be called classifiers. They are syntactically the same, but semantically different. Generally, measure words go with mass nouns, while classifiers go with count nouns. For the sake of simplicity, we will just use the term “measure word”.

Structure

Place an appropriate measure word before a noun.

Examples

Usage notes

The most common usage of measure words is to indicate amount, which gives them their name. However, when it comes to measure words, there are many important points that require special attention:

• Some nouns can go with multiple measure words.
• Some nouns don’t (and can’t) go with any measure word.
• Some nouns can go with or without their measure words.
• Some words act as nouns and also as measure words.
• We can omit measure words in lists.
• The concept of bound measure words.
• The concept of collective measure words.

Nouns with multiple measure words

Some nouns can go with multiple measure words, and with different measure words, the meaning can change or stay the same.

Some nouns go with different measure words in different dialects. The most typical example is the measure word for fruits: quả in the Northern dialect, but trái in the Southern dialect. For instance, we say quả xoài (“mango”) in the Northern dialect, but trái xoài in the Southern dialect. They mean the exact same thing. This doesn’t just hold true for “mango”, but also for all other fruits. Another pair is quyển (Northern) and cuốn (Southern), the measure words for sách (“book”) and truyện (“storybook”).

Different measure words can carry different connotations. For example, we say quả tim in the Northern dialect and trái tim (“heart”) in the Southern dialect, but that’s only “the heart” in a physical sense, the thing that pumps blood and oxygen throughout the body. If we want to say “the heart” in a spiritual sense, as in “the feeling”, we can’t use quả tim; it must be trái tim even in the Northern dialect. An alternative for “the spiritual heart” is con tim, but it sounds quite poetic (common in music and literature).

Some nouns can take cái as an alternative measure word. For example, the “official” measure word for bút (“pen”) is cây, so we say cây bút. However, it’s common to use cái instead of cây, especially in spoken Vietnamese, which means we can also say cái bút.

Nouns without measure words

Some nouns don’t (and can’t) go with any measure word. It will sound really weird if you try to force a measure word on it. A typical example is time nouns: giờ (“hour”), ngày (“day”), tuần (“week”), tháng (“month”), năm (“year”). The logic behind this is that they are, in essence, measure words for thời gian (“time”), which is the actual noun.

Another type is (multisyllabic) Sino-Vietnamese nouns, especially those that are abstract, even if those nouns actually have measure words in Chinese. For example: ý tưởng (意想 — “idea”), xã hội (社會 — “society”), quốc gia (國家 — “country”).

Nouns that can go with or without measure words

Some nouns can go with or without their measure words. However, the meanings of the two options are usually different.

For example, chuyện can mean “story”, but can also mean “affair”, “matter”, “thing”. It can take the measure word câu, but when it does, the only possible interpretation is “story”. In other words, to express “affair”, “matter”, or “thing”, chuyện must go without a measure word.

Another example is người (“person”, “human”), which is technically an animal, and as is the case with all other animals, it can take the measure word con. However, under normal circumstances, it doesn’t (and shouldn’t) go with a measure word.

In contrast, there are cases where con must accompany người:

• To express “human” in a biological sense, as an animal, contrasting with other animals, instead of “person”.
• To express the “character”, “personality” instead of the physical “person”.
• To ensure sound (syllabic) harmony.
• It just doesn’t sound good without it.

Examples:

Discussing “humans” in a biological sense, as in “cavemen”, “Homo”, not modern, civilized beings

The “portrait” of Hồ Chí Minh isn’t about his physical appearance, but his character and merit.

There are three syllables in một trái tim, so we need three syllables in hai con người to ensure sound harmony.

Quyền người just doesn’t sound good.

Words that act as nouns and also as measure words

Some words can act as both nouns and measure words. A typical example is nouns referring to containers: chai (“bottle”), hộp (“box”), túi (“bag”), etc.

Some words can serve as measure words for other nouns (in a dialect), but also act as nouns themselves (in another dialect) to express the exact same thing. For example, in the Southern dialect, the word for “flower” is bông. However, in the Northern dialect, bông only serves as the measure word for hoa, the actual word for “flower”, so we say bông hoa.

Another similar example, but not identical, is bắp. In the Northern dialect, bắp is the measure word for ngô (“corn”), so we say bắp ngô. However, in the Southern dialect, bắp (“corn”) is a noun in its own right, and its measure word is trái, so we say trái bắp.

Omitting measure words in lists

We can omit measure words in lists to avoid sounding verbose. Note that this only applies for count nouns.

Bound measure words

Bound measure words are the measure words that are part of nouns. In other words, bound measure words can’t be omitted from the nouns, or else the meanings won’t be the same.

Without measure word		With measure word
Vietnamese	English	Vietnamese	English
hát	to sing	bài hát	song
hỏi	to ask	câu hỏi	question
ngồi	to sit	chỗ ngồi	seat
ăn	to eat	món ăn	dish
chơi	to play	trò chơi	game

Collective measure words

Collective measure words are the measure words used to express “a group”, “a bunch”, “a herd”, etc.

Individual		Collection
Vietnamese	English	Vietnamese	English
quả chuối	banana	nải chuối	hand of bananas
		buồng chuối	bunch of bananas
quả nho	grape	chùm nho	bunch of grapes
con chim	bird	đàn chim	flock of birds
con sói	wolf	bầy sói	pack of wolves
bông hoa	flower	bó hoa	bouquet of flowers
tên cướp	robber	toán cướp	gang of robbers