| ko3 | 個 | (the most common of all measure words) for people; for medium-sized, round objects like fruit, bowls, plates and buns; for countries and regions; for abstract nouns like questions, ideas and decisions; for many things that are not easily categorized like drawers and screw drivers |
| bou6 | 部 | for books and magazines |
| pui1 | 杯 | for glass, cup |
| pun2 | 本 | for books and magazines |
| dou3 | 對 | pair, couple |
| zek3 | 隻 | - for mammals, more animals, birds and insects except fish and animal with an elongated shape.
- for most eating utensils and containers
- for some parts of the body like hands and legs; for boats
|
| zi1 | 支 | for slender, long and stiff objects such as pens, pencils, flowers, sticks; for songs, music; for armies, navies |
| zeon1 | 樽 | bottle |
| zoeng1 | 張 | for flat things like papers, documents, dollar bills, swords, knives, CDs and records; for furniture like tables and chairs |
| fai3 | 塊 | slice, piece, lump |
| ga3 | 架 | for cars, vehicles, planes; for devices like computers, TVs and stereos |
| lap1 | 粒 | for very small things like grains of cereal, sand, cloves of garlic, diamonds, beads, stars |
| po1 |
| for plants, trees and vegetables |
| sau2 | 首 | for songs and poems |
| diu4 | 條 | for long objects like ribbons, tapes, strings, ties, loaves of bread; for hair, feathers, bones; for keys, roads, fish and reptiles; rude or slang for people |
| jeot1 | 齣 | for movies, opera or plays |
| wai2 | 位 | for people in polite speech |
| kaan1 | 間 | for room and room space |
