几 (jǐ) is one word doing two jobs. In a question it means "how many?" — expecting a smallish answer: 几个人？ (jǐ ge rén?) "how many people?". In a statement the very same 几 means "a few / several": 我有几个问题 (wǒ yǒu jǐ ge wèntí) "I have a few questions." What tells the two apart is simply whether the sentence is a question. The crucial structural fact for learners is that 几 behaves grammatically like a number: it slots into the exact same [number + measure word + noun] frame as 三 or 五, so it must carry a measure word — 三个人 (three people), 几个人 (how many / a few people). Drop the classifier and the phrase breaks, the same way it would after 三.
几 as "how many?" — the question use
When 几 opens or sits inside a question, it asks for a count, and it quietly presumes the answer will be small — typically under about ten. This is why 几 is the natural word for things that come in small numbers: guests, siblings, questions, the time, the date, a child's age. The word order is fixed and needs no inversion: the question word stays exactly where the answer would go (this is the "in-situ" pattern shared by all Chinese question words).
你们班有几个学生？
nǐmen bān yǒu jǐ ge xuésheng?
How many students are in your class? (neutral)
现在几点了？
xiànzài jǐ diǎn le?
What time is it now? (informal) — 几点 literally 'how many o'clocks'.
你今年几岁了？
nǐ jīnnián jǐ suì le?
How old are you this year? (asking a child) — 几岁 presumes a small number, so it's used for kids, not adults.
That last example shows the presumption at work. You ask a small child 几岁 (jǐ suì), but for an adult you switch to 多大 (duō dà) or 多少岁, precisely because 几 signals "I expect a low number." Ask an adult 几岁 and it sounds like you're treating them like a toddler.
几 as "a few / several" — the statement use
Move the same 几 into a plain statement and it stops asking and starts asserting a small, vague quantity — "a few, several, some." No change of form, only of sentence type.
我有几个问题想问你。
wǒ yǒu jǐ ge wèntí xiǎng wèn nǐ.
I have a few questions I'd like to ask you. (neutral)
冰箱里还有几瓶啤酒。
bīngxiāng li hái yǒu jǐ píng píjiǔ.
There are still a few bottles of beer in the fridge. (informal)
这本书我看了好几遍。
zhè běn shū wǒ kàn le hǎo jǐ biàn.
I've read this book quite a few times. (informal) — 好几 (hǎo jǐ) intensifies to 'quite a few'.
Building bigger approximates: 十几 and 几十
Because 几 acts like a digit, you can stack it with 十 to build handy vague ranges. The position of 几 relative to 十 flips the meaning:
| Form | Pinyin | Meaning | Range |
|---|---|---|---|
| 几个 | jǐ ge | a few | ~2–9 |
| 十几个 | shí jǐ ge | ten-odd, a dozen or so | 11–19 |
| 几十个 | jǐ shí ge | dozens, several tens | 20–90+ |
| 二十几个 | èrshí jǐ ge | twenty-something | 21–29 |
| 几百个 | jǐ bǎi ge | a few hundred | 100s |
The logic is transparent: 几 in the ones place (十几) means "ten plus a few," so the teens; 几 in the tens place (几十) means "several tens," so dozens. This gives you a whole vocabulary of rough quantities for free.
桌子上放着十几本杂志。
zhuōzi shang fàng zhe shí jǐ běn zázhì.
There are a dozen or so magazines on the table. (neutral)
那家小公司只有几十个员工。
nà jiā xiǎo gōngsī zhǐ yǒu jǐ shí ge yuángōng.
That small company has only a few dozen employees. (neutral)
几 vs 多少: the size of the expected answer
The other "how many/how much" word, 多少 (duōshao), is 几's counterpart for larger or open-ended quantities. The split is about how big you expect the answer to be:
- 几 — you expect a small count (people at a table, siblings, hours, questions). It keeps its measure word: 几个人.
- 多少 — the answer could be large or you have no idea of the scale (prices, phone numbers, populations, page counts). It usually drops the measure word: 多少钱, 多少人.
这件衣服多少钱？
zhè jiàn yīfu duōshao qián?
How much is this piece of clothing? (neutral) — price could be anything, so 多少, and no measure word.
你们学校有多少学生？
nǐmen xuéxiào yǒu duōshao xuésheng?
How many students does your school have? (neutral) — a school could have thousands, so 多少 rather than 几.
Notice how swapping the two changes the assumption: ask 你有几个孩子？ and you sound normal (families are small); ask 你有多少个孩子？ and you sound like you suspect the person has an improbable number. The 几 vs 多少 contrast has a fuller side-by-side of its own (see the related topics below).
Common Mistakes
1. Dropping the measure word. Since 几 is a number, it needs a classifier in everyday speech. Bare 几人 survives only in set or written phrases; in conversation, keep the measure word.
❌ 这里有几人。
Marginal in speech — 几 needs its measure word, like a number.
✅ 这里有几个人。
zhèlǐ yǒu jǐ ge rén.
There are a few people here.
2. Using 几 where the amount is large or unknown. For prices, phone numbers, and populations, the expected answer is not small, so you need 多少, not 几.
❌ 你的手机号是几？
Wrong — a phone number is a long string, not a small count; use 多少.
✅ 你的手机号是多少？
nǐ de shǒujī hào shì duōshao?
What's your mobile number?
3. Inserting 的 between 几个 and the noun. Like any number-plus-classifier, 几个 attaches straight to the noun with no 的.
❌ 我买了几个的苹果。
Wrong — no 的 after a measure-word phrase.
✅ 我买了几个苹果。
wǒ mǎi le jǐ ge píngguǒ.
I bought a few apples.
4. Asking an adult their age with 几岁. 几 presumes a low number, so 几岁 is for children. For adults, use 多大 or 多少岁.
❌ 您几岁了？
Rude — 几岁 treats the listener like a small child.
✅ 您多大了？
nín duō dà le?
How old are you? (polite, to an adult)
Key Takeaways
- 几 (jǐ) is grammatically a number: it always takes a measure word — 几个人, 几本书, 几瓶啤酒.
- In a question it means "how many?"; in a statement the same word means "a few / several." Sentence type disambiguates.
- It presumes a small count (roughly under ten), which is why 几岁 is for children and 几点 for the time.
- Stack it with 十 for ranges: 十几 (a dozen or so, 11–19), 几十 (dozens), 二十几 (twenty-something).
- Switch to 多少 when the answer could be large or you have no idea of the scale — and note that 多少 usually drops the measure word.
Now practice Chinese
Reading grammar gets you part of the way. The exercises are where it sticks — free, no signup needed.
Start learning Chinese→Related Topics
- 几 vs 多少HSK 1 — 几 (jǐ) and 多少 (duōshao) both ask 'how many/much', but 几 expects a small count and needs a measure word (几个人), while 多少 covers any or unknown quantity and usually drops it (多少钱).
- The Default 个HSK 1 — 个 (gè, usually neutral-toned ge) is the general-purpose measure word — the safe fallback when you don't know the specific classifier — and it correctly covers people, many everyday objects, and abstract nouns; the goal is to graduate to specific classifiers while keeping 个 for the nouns that genuinely take it.
- 多 Approximation (三十多)HSK 2 — 多 (duō) attached to a number means '-odd / and more' — 三十多 (thirty-odd), 一百多 (a hundred-plus); its position (before or after the measure word) changes whether the extra is whole units or a fraction.
- Question Words Stay In Place (In Situ)HSK 1 — The single most important rule for Chinese wh-questions: the question word sits exactly where the answer will sit. No fronting, no do-support, no reordering — 你去哪儿？ not ❌哪儿你去？ And because the question word already asks, you never add 吗.