Definitions
(classifier)
general classifier for people and objects
(noun)
individual; piece
Etymology
Pictograph of one stalk of bamboo. Same as one half of the character for bamboo (竹).
About
The character "个" finds its origins in early Chinese as a numeral classifier, likely stemming from a pictorial depiction of a single bamboo segment, which accounts for its minimal two-stroke construction. The traditional form "個" incorporated the person radical, reflecting a semantic shift towards counting human individuals, yet the simpler variant persisted through centuries. Over time, its application widened from a specific measure for cylindrical items to a versatile classifier for diverse objects, while also adopting the abstract sense of an individual unit in various compound terms, demonstrating a gradual semantic generalization that retained its core grammatical function.
Example Sentences Hide
我有一个苹果。
他买了三个面包。
这个人很友好。
整个城市都很安静。
请你给我一个机会。
那个问题有点难。
我每个月都去图书馆。
他一个人完成了所有工作。