Chinese for English speakers House · Lesson 2
Number of family members
Chinese counter 口 for family — 您家有几口人? (How many people in your family?) — 口 is the family-counting counter.
Conversation
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Lindo
柏灵先生，
Bólíng xiān sheng,
Mr. Wang,
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Lindo
您家有几口人？
nín jiā yǒu jǐ kǒu rén?
How many people are there in your house?
Tip: 家<jiā> = house/ family 有<yǒu> = to have/ there is 几<jǐ> = how many/ much (for small units) 口<kǒu> = counter form family members. English does not have the part of speech called "counter". It is a character that is placed after a number or a demonstrative pronoun (this, that, etc) and provides some information about the object it refers to. There are counters for all sort of things: for people, for thin objects, for volumes and so on.
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Bolin
有三口人。
yǒu sān kǒu rén.
There are 3 people.
Tip: 三 <sān> = 3
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Bolin
儿子，老婆和我。
ér zi, lǎo pó hé wǒ.
My son, my wife and me.
Tip: 儿子 <érzi> = son 老婆 <lǎpó> = wife 和 <hé> = preposition or conjunction to link to nouns (NOT VERBS) = and, staying with