(jǐ) - how many, a few, several in Mandarin
jǐTraditional: 几
Translation
how many, a few, several
Word origin
Originally a pictograph (traditional 幾) connected with a small frame or loom and the idea of counting threads; it now means how many or a few.
- Origin
- pictographic
- Root
- a drawing of a small frame or table (traditional 幾)
Stroke order
几
Examples
？
How many siblings do you have?
。
I almost forgot it was your birthday.
。
He came back a few days ago.
？
How many books did you buy?
笔。
There are several pens on the table.
几 (jǐ) asks 'how many?' for small numbers and also means 'a few', depending on whether the sentence is a question. It reads jī in 几乎 (almost), where the tone shifts with the meaning.
Appears in 1 word
Multi-character compounds in the corpus that contain 几.
Used in
Grammar articles
(4)Approximation and Rounding in Mandarin: 左右, 大概, 差不多, 几 and 来 for About, Around and Roughly
Asking How + Adjective in Mandarin with 多: 多高, 多远, 多长, 多大
Mandarin Existential and Presentative Sentences: 有, 出现, 发生 and Why New Things Go After the Verb
Mandarin Question Formation: 吗, V-Not-V, 还是, and the In-Situ Wh-Word System
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Go to my review queueThis word is part of lesson 102.