dictionary with measure words

[Nox01]

I see not all words in dictionaries have a measure word added to it.

How can I know what’s the measure word for those words that don’t have it in the dictionary? Do I assume 个 works for them?

 

I’ve recently seen “一条点赞”. 点赞 has no measure word added to it in the dictionary. 条 is usually used for thin, long things, with a few exceptions (一条好汉，一条新闻，一条建议), so I’m guessing this is one of them.

 

Is there a dictionary where every word has all possible measure words added to it?

[ChTTay]

You can buy little books of measure words. They're aimed at foreign students and have all the most common ones and how they're used. Can probably find a similar thing online if you're not in China / don't have access to a good book store.

[Demonic_Duck]

Could you provide the context for that “一条点赞”? 点赞 is a verb, and I don't think 条 can ever be used with verbs (nor with 赞 as a noun). All Google or Baidu results I can find for this sequence of characters are where 条 is referring to something else. For example, 一条点赞过千的朋友圈, where 朋友圈 refers to a post on 微信朋友圈 (微信's equivalent to Facebook's news feed), and is therefore a subset of 信息 or 贴子, both which can take 条 as a classifier.

 

Note also that classifiers aren't always used consistently, so having an exhaustive list for each noun or verb would be impossible. Different classifiers often carry different shades of nuance - for example, 一条狗 brings to mind an image of a bigger dog than 一只狗 does (but I think 一只狗 is also more common in Taiwan usage). Often it's just best to learn things from context.

 

That's not to say a dedicated classifier dictionary wouldn't be useful, just that it may not mention those nuances, and will never cover situations like “一条朋友圈” mentioned above (which have to be inferred from the nature of the item).

[Shelley]

Pleco gives the measure word. I can't say 100% if there are measure words for everything, but up to now there has been a measure word for the things I look up. These entries are in the CEDICT the chinese-english dictionary that comes free with Pleco.

 

I always say no student of chinese should be with out Pleco. Have a look here https://www.pleco.com/

[Nox01]

@Demonic_duck

Ah yes, that makes sense. The context is indeed from weixin. Sometimes some people send me "朋友圈第一条点赞“。I mistakenly assumed 点赞 is a noun. As you pointed out, the 条 then must refer to the weixin’s news feeds 信息／贴子／朋友圈／新闻。

 

@Shelley: Thanks! I’ll look into it

[Luxi]

The Dictionary in Arch Chinese gives the measure words for nouns.

See here for example.

 

I find the information in this dictionary very useful, not just measure words and radical, also related words and example sentences. Really worth bookmarking.

[Demonic_Duck]

@Demonic_duck

Ah yes, that makes sense. The context is indeed from weixin. Sometimes some people send me "朋友圈第一条点赞“。I mistakenly assumed 点赞 is a noun. As you pointed out, the 条 then must refer to the weixin’s news feeds 信息／贴子／朋友圈／新闻。

Yeah, you can understand that as 朋友圈｜第一条｜点赞 （topic comment structure). 朋友圈 is the topic; 第一条 is the subject; 点赞 is the predicate. Note that the subject actually omits the noun altogether - the noun is instead inferred from context.

[lips]

朋友圈第一条点赞

 

seems to mean "the first like in 朋友圈"

[Nox01]

I thought it means "be the first one to like (my new content)", as if inviting me to go to their page and press 赞 on their latest photo/shared content.

 

If it means "the first like in 朋友圈", what is the point of them sharing this thought with me?

[lips]

I was referring to the meaning of the sentence.  Your inference of what your friend really meant is probably correct.

[Demonic_Duck]

朋友圈第一条点赞

seems to mean "the first like in 朋友圈"

Do you disagree with my breakdown of the sentence then? Or are you just saying the sentence is poorly constructed/ambiguous?

[lips]

I'm terrible with grammar.  That was my interpretation of that sentence and I can't think of any other interpretation.