Is it permissible to use 个 in any nouns as a measure word?

Question

In the book titled "Modern Mandarin Chinese Grammar: A Practical Guide", the author writes the following:

In mainland China, in informal speech, 个 can be used as the classifier for almost any noun, even those with an established classifier. This phenomenon is sometimes referred to as 个化 "ge-ization.".

It also shows some examples:

一个车 (not 一辆车)

一个房子 (not 一所房子)

Now I wonder if it is permissible to use 个 in any nouns. What kind of impressions do you get if people use 个 in any nouns? Is it considered rude or looks childish? In what kind of "informal" situations is it OK to use 个 in any nouns?

Answer 1

I would say somehow it's true in informal circumstances.

But I don't quite agree with the definition of 个化 above in which 个 as a classifier is going with nouns. When you say 一个车 or 一个房子 alone, it definitely sounds odd and ignorant.

My take to this, instead, is 个 goes with a verb, being the form of "verb+个". Then it becomes the casual way to express the action of verbs. For example, 我去提个车， 我去打个水， 我去玩个电脑, 我去乘个车，我打个游戏， 我推个车， 我骑个马 ....... Those sentences sound definitely natural to a native ear. If you say 我去提一辆车，我去打一盆水......, it sounds more formal than the sentences above.

Almost everything can express like that. Again, the point is that it has to go with a verb, instead standing alone. 一个车，一个水，一个电脑，一个马，those terms alone sounds ignorant. 一个游戏 sounds ok because 个/款 are right classifiers for it.

I suggest you carefully use this rule in informal situations before you get the hang of it.

Answer 2

A lot of students (like me, for quite a long time) are under the (mistaken) impression that each noun has its particular measure word, and if we forget that the measure word for 灯 is 盏 (*gasp*), the stuck-up grammar police officer will tell us off.

However, the reality is that measure words measure things, and furthermore, different measure words measure things differently, such as:

一瓶水 = "a bottle of water"
一杯水 = "a glass of water"
一吨水 = "a tonne of water"

Yes, often it is harmless to blindly use 个, but it's sometimes not so simple:

1. Changing the measure word to 个 sometimes changes the meaning to something quite different:

   三个人 = "three people"
   三群人 = "three groups of people"
   三家人 = "three families"

   一个蛋糕 = "a (whole) cake"
   一块蛋糕 = "a slice of cake"

   一个手机 = "a mobile phone"
   一款手机 = "a model of mobile phone"

2. The measure word 个 simply doesn't work for non-countable nouns, like:

   一个水 = "a water" (x)
   一个豆腐 = "a tofu" (x)

3. Sometimes there are multiple natural ways of measuring something, and it's not clear what 个 would replace:

   一根玉米 = "a cob of corn"
   一颗玉米 = "a kernel of corn"

4. When there are multiple nouns, distinct measure words can eliminate ambiguity, such as in:

   三位老师不喜欢的学校 = "the schools disliked by three teachers"
   三所老师不喜欢的学校 = "three schools disliked by teachers"

   In this way, being aware of the appropriate measure words is especially helpful in parsing long sentences.