<p>只 is the measure word for boats, birds, some animals, some containers, and one of certain paired things, e.g. 一只船 [yī zhī chuán,] 两只老虎 [liǎng zhī lǎohǔ,] 两只手 [liǎng zhī shǒu.] 只 is also the character for the adverb only/just/merely, when pronounced as [zhǐ.]</p>

<p>支 is the measure word for long, thin, inflexible objects, e.g. 一支香烟 [yī zhī xiāngyān,] 两支笔 [liǎng zhī bǐ.]</p>

<p>之 is the one that doesn't fit here, because it's not a measure word/classifier, it is the literary equivalent of 的 [de], as well as some other things, usually in a formal context (so you'll find it in 成语 [chéng yǔ,] used in place of an objective noun or pronoun, etc.)</p>

<p>See Wikipedia for a pretty big list of classifiers: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Chinese_classifiers" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Chinese_classifiers</a></p>

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2014-12-01T06:16:21.110Z
2014-12-01T06:24:55.173Z
2014-12-01T06:24:55.173Z
Ming
<p>I'm a native speaker but I don't know the first thing about writing Chinese, on Rosetta stone we were shown 一支笔 and 一只狗, whats the difference and where and when do you use each one? </p>

<grammar><word-choice><characters><difference>
Difference between 只,之, and 支?
# Difference between 只,之, and 支?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2014-12-01)

I'm a native speaker but I don't know the first thing about writing Chinese, on Rosetta stone we were shown 一支笔 and 一只狗, whats the difference and where and when do you use each one?

**Tags:** grammar, word-choice, characters, difference


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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2014-12-01. Score: 1 | Accepted answer

只 is the measure word for boats, birds, some animals, some containers, and one of certain paired things, e.g. 一只船 [yī zhī chuán,] 两只老虎 [liǎng zhī lǎohǔ,] 两只手 [liǎng zhī shǒu.] 只 is also the character for the adverb only/just/merely, when pronounced as [zhǐ.]

支 is the measure word for long, thin, inflexible objects, e.g. 一支香烟 [yī zhī xiāngyān,] 两支笔 [liǎng zhī bǐ.]

之 is the one that doesn't fit here, because it's not a measure word/classifier, it is the literary equivalent of 的 [de], as well as some other things, usually in a formal context (so you'll find it in 成语 [chéng yǔ,] used in place of an objective noun or pronoun, etc.)

See Wikipedia for a pretty big list of classifiers: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Chinese_classifiers>


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