liǎ / liǎng
number HSK 4 #379

Meanings

  1. 1 two (colloquial equivalent of 两个)
  2. 2 both
  3. 3 a couple of; a few

Examples

Wǒmen liǎ shì hǎo péngyou.
The two of us are good friends.
Nǐmen liǎ zài shuō shénme ne?
What are you two talking about?
Tāliǎ zhǎng de hěn xiàng.
The two of them look very alike.

Tips

grammar
is a fusion of + , so the measure word is already baked in — never write or follow it with any other measure word. Typical pairings are with people pronouns: 我们, 你们, 他们.
mistakes
Don't confuse (liǎ, 'two of [people]') with (liǎng, the standard number 'two' used before measure words). The same character is also read liǎng, but only as the bound morpheme in 伎俩 ('trick'). Outside that one compound, = liǎ.

Components

radical
rén
person
Left-side person radical, the side-form of . This is the semantic anchor: the liǎ reading counts only people, never objects, and is what tells you so. For pairs of things use + measure word instead.
phonetic
liǎng
two; a pair
Right side supplies both sound (liǎng → liǎ) and meaning. Combined with the person radical, fuses with an implicit measure word — so already means 'two of them (people)' on its own; never write . The other reading liǎng survives only in 伎俩.

Stroke Order

liǎ