Referring to things in Mandarin Chinese
From UniLang Wiki
Expressing "this" and "that" can be done as in the following example, but note that there appears an extra word that one might not have expected, this is a so-called Measure Word and is a very important feature in Chinese Grammar:
- 这所大学 (zhè suǒ dàxué) - Literal: This [MW] university - This university
- 那所大学 (nà suǒ dàxué) - Literal: That [MW] university - That university
In this case the measure word is 所 (suǒ), but there are numerous Measure Words, each can be used with a specific category of words. Those will need to be learnt by heart. However, there is a measure word that Chinese people use when they conveniently forget the right one: 个 (gè).
The use of such measure words is obligatory in many cases (such as this one).
