jiàn
measure word HSK 2 #210

Meanings

  1. 1 measure word for matters, clothes, luggage

Examples

Wǒ yǒu yī jiàn shì yào gàosu nǐ.
I have something to tell you.
Tā mǎi le liǎng jiàn yīfu.
She bought two pieces of clothing.
Zhè jiàn shì bù jiǎndān.
This matter is not simple.

Tips

usage
is used for events / matters (), upper-body clothing (衬衫), and luggage (行李).

Components

radical
rén
person (radical form)
Left person radical, the side-form of . Marks as a person-related concept — historically a person plus a cow representing one unit of livestock or property. Hence the meaning 'item, piece, individual unit, matter.' Same radical anchors , , .
semantic
niú
cow; ox
Right side (cow). The whole graph reads 'person + cow' — a person counting cattle, one head at a time. Cattle were the prototypical countable property in early Chinese society, so came to mean 'piece, item, instance' more generally. Useful in 衣服 (one item of clothing), (one matter).

Stroke Order

jiàn