Today’s Classifier: 件

You thought it would be something about fog again, didn’t you? No, it’s about clothes. Not sure what the above item is, so let’s just call it: 一件衫 （yat gin saam) A piece, or item, of clothing. (衫 meaning clothes in general.)
呢件T 恤 (Li gin T seot) – this T shirt. 四十五件恤衫 （Sei sap m gin seot-saam) 45 items of shirts.

件 is the classifier for clothing except trousers 褲 (fu) and skirts 裙 (kwan) which have the classifier 條 (tiu)， as discussed in an earlier post.

But guess what, shopping for clothes in Hong Kong and having clothes made in wonderful Shenzhen has showed me that many people now use 個 (go) classifier for shirts, jumpers and jackets. It’s probably the natural evolution/simplification of the language.

And the dog? My lovely Lasi (named after “last card” in the southern Chinese game of 鋤大D (cho dai di))? The classifier for her is 隻。（Jek). 一隻啡色狗 （Yat jek feh sek gau) One brown dog.

Wonder how many classifiers there are? I’ll try to find out.