nickname Posted January 20, 2010 at 10:41 PM Report Share Posted January 20, 2010 at 10:41 PM ... same with swapping "nu" for "nan". nu ren - woman? nan ren - man? What adding "yi ge" mean? I'm using Rosetta Stone and this is the only thing that is stumping me. I thought it might be a singular/plural thing, but one of the screens has both "yi ge nan ren" and "nan ren" displayed, and both images show one man. Thanks for any advice and I am sorry if this is a repost. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
semantic nuance Posted January 21, 2010 at 02:01 AM Report Share Posted January 21, 2010 at 02:01 AM yi ge is a measure word which means a/ an. So, yi ge nu ren is a woman and yi ge nan ren, a man. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tooironic Posted January 22, 2010 at 10:12 AM Report Share Posted January 22, 2010 at 10:12 AM Basically you just need to remember that Chinese does not make a distinction between singular and plural nouns. So nǚrén can mean both "woman" or "women" depending on the context. Hope that helps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brilight Posted February 15, 2010 at 11:19 PM Report Share Posted February 15, 2010 at 11:19 PM (edited) yi ge nv ren usually means one woman, occasionally means a woman. Edited February 19, 2010 at 03:44 AM by brilight Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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