Question
Updated on
28 Aug 2020
- Dutch
- English (US) Near fluent
-
Korean
-
Simplified Chinese (China)
Closed question
Question about Simplified Chinese (China)
What is the difference between 几个 and 一些 which one do you use to mean "some" or "a few" ?Feel free to just provide example sentences.
What is the difference between 几个 and 一些 which one do you use to mean "some" or "a few" ?Feel free to just provide example sentences.
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28 Aug 2020
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- English (UK) Near fluent
- Simplified Chinese (China)
"几个" normally means the things you can count with your fingers, but it can't be used to describe some uncountable items like water, air, etc.
While "一些" can be used to describe basically anything.
Examples:
一些：some/a few/a little
我想要喝一些水。I want to drink some water.
你需要多呼吸一些新鲜空气。You need to breathe more fresh air.
几个: some/a few/a couple of
你能帮我买几个苹果吗？Can you buy me a few apples?
他等了我几个小时。He waited for me for a couple of hours.
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- Japanese Near fluent
- Simplified Chinese (China)
- Simplified Chinese (China)
countable noun - 几个 uncountable noun - 一些。but the quantifier in Chinese might be the most complicate in all languages...
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- English (UK) Near fluent
- Simplified Chinese (China)
"几个" normally means the things you can count with your fingers, but it can't be used to describe some uncountable items like water, air, etc.
While "一些" can be used to describe basically anything.
Examples:
一些：some/a few/a little
我想要喝一些水。I want to drink some water.
你需要多呼吸一些新鲜空气。You need to breathe more fresh air.
几个: some/a few/a couple of
你能帮我买几个苹果吗？Can you buy me a few apples?
他等了我几个小时。He waited for me for a couple of hours.
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- Dutch
- English (US) Near fluent
- Simplified Chinese (China)
I use “一些” to mean “some” and “几个” to mean “a few”.
“一些” can be used to modify countable noun or uncountable noun, while “几个” just can be used to modify countable noun.
For example,
I want to buy some/ a few apples:
我想买一些/几个苹果。✅
I want to buy some milk:
我想买一些牛奶。✅
我想买几个牛奶。❌
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