Chinese Language Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for students, teachers, and linguists wanting to discuss the finer points of the Chinese language. It only takes a minute to sign up.
Sign up to join this community
I saw two versions of a sentence "He is a teacher":
他是老师。 VS 他是一个老师。
After googling I've become even more confused by versions:
他是一位老师。 AND 他是一名老师。
Are they actually different? What is the difference? Is it possible to use these ‘一什么什么’ in questions?
Update:
Found one more version:
他是个老师。
Which is said to be informal at this link.
In English, an article such as "a", "an", "the" is essential element before a countable noun. In Chinese it is optional.
Comparing "He is a teacher" with "他是老師". 他/He implies there is one person. "a" is redundant.
In "他是一位老師" and "他是一名老師", "一位" and "一名" is a kind of respect to a teacher. 位 means position and rank. 名 means famed. In the old days, Chinese showed their high respect to teachers.
"一個" is a common measuring word. Saying "他是一個老師" is like treating a teacher as a common object or a common person.
In practical, 一 is redundant and people often say "他是位老師" and "他是名老師". So do "他是個老師".
In Classical Chinese, we can writing "他是一老師" if we emphasize it it "one".
Concerning your two example sentences, I believe that the difference is a matter of respect.
Aside from that there should not be any difference.
Source: http://www.ctcfl.ox.ac.uk/Grammar%20exercises/Measure%20words.htm
