Breakdown of wǒ de gōngyù yǒu yí gè xiǎo chúfáng hé yí gè kètīng, chúfáng lǐ yǒu yí gè bīngxiāng.
Used when counting nouns or when specifying a specific instance of a noun.
There are also classifiers for people, for bound items such as books and magazines, for cups/glasses, etc.
The classifier 个 is a general one that can be used for any of these.
Questions & Answers about wǒ de gōngyù yǒu yí gè xiǎo chúfáng hé yí gè kètīng, chúfáng lǐ yǒu yí gè bīngxiāng.
的 (de) is a possessive particle. It turns 我 (wǒ, I/me) into 我的 (wǒ de, my).
- 我公寓 is generally wrong or at least very unnatural in modern standard Mandarin.
- The normal way to say my apartment is 我的公寓.
Sometimes 的 can be dropped in close relationships (e.g. 我妈妈, 我朋友) but not usually with things like 公寓.
It’s the same verb 有 (yǒu), but it has two closely related uses:
Possession:
- 我的公寓有一个小厨房和一个客厅。
→ My apartment has a small kitchen and a living room.
Here 有 means to have.
- 我的公寓有一个小厨房和一个客厅。
Existence / “there is/are”:
- 厨房里有一个冰箱。
→ There is a refrigerator in the kitchen.
Here 有 is more like there is / there are.
- 厨房里有一个冰箱。
Chinese uses 有 for both possession and stating that something exists in a place. Context and word order tell you which is meant.
In Mandarin, almost every counted noun needs a measure word (classifier) between the number and the noun.
- 一 + 个 + 小厨房
- 一 + 个 + 客厅
- 一 + 个 + 冰箱
Here 个 (gè) is a very common general measure word, usable for many objects.
You cannot normally say 一小厨房 or 一客厅 or 一冰箱; the measure word 个 (or another appropriate measure word) must be there.
More specific measure words also exist, e.g.:
- 一间厨房 / 一间客厅 (jiān – for rooms)
- 一台冰箱 (tái – for machines/appliances)
But using 个 is grammatically fine and very common in everyday speech.
The character is 一, and its basic pronunciation is yī (first tone).
However, 一 changes tone depending on what comes after it:
Before a fourth-tone syllable, 一 usually changes to second tone (yí):
- 一个 (yí gè)
- 一共 (yí gòng)
Before a first, second, or third tone, 一 usually becomes fourth tone (yì) if it’s stressed as “one”:
- 一次 (yí cì) is often heard, but in textbook rules: yí or yì depending on context and stress.
In your sentence, 一 is followed by 个 (gè, fourth tone), so it is pronounced yí according to the standard tone-sandhi rule.
In Mandarin, basic adjectives almost always come before the noun they modify:
- 小厨房 = small kitchen
- 大客厅 = big living room
- 新公寓 = new apartment
So the natural order is:
(adjective) + (noun)
小 + 厨房, 大 + 客厅, etc.
厨房小 is not used as a noun phrase like “a small kitchen”; instead, it would sound like a comment:
- 厨房小。 = “The kitchen is small.” (subject + adjective as predicate)
So:
- a small kitchen → 小厨房
- the kitchen is small → 厨房很小 / 厨房小
Both patterns exist, but they have different feels:
Adjective directly before noun (no 的)
- 小厨房, 大客厅, 新房子
- Common for simple, single-syllable adjectives and very basic descriptions.
Adjective + 的 + noun
- 大的房子, 漂亮的衣服, 安静的公寓
- More descriptive, often with longer / more complex adjectives.
You could say 小的厨房, but in this context 小厨房 is more natural and concise.
Think of 小厨房 as a fixed short description like “small kitchen”, while 小的厨房 is slightly more formal or contrastive (the small kitchen (as opposed to the big one)).
里 (lǐ) means inside / in.
- 厨房里 = inside the kitchen / in the kitchen
- 厨房 by itself can mean “the kitchen” as a place, but 厨房里 emphasizes the inside of it.
If you say:
- 厨房有一个冰箱。
This is understandable and many people might say it casually, but 厨房里有一个冰箱 is more standard and clearly means:
- There is a refrigerator *in the kitchen.*
So 里 makes the location more precise: inside that place.
Both orders are grammatically possible, but they have different emphasis:
Location + 有 + thing
- 厨房里有一个冰箱。
- Very common structure to introduce something existing in a place.
- Emphasis: What is in the kitchen? → There is a fridge (there).
Thing + 在 + location
- 冰箱在厨房里。
- Emphasis: Where is the fridge? → The fridge is in the kitchen.
有一个冰箱在厨房里 is possible, but less natural here; it feels like mixing the two patterns. The most natural two choices are:
- 厨房里有一个冰箱。 (There is a fridge in the kitchen.)
- 冰箱在厨房里。 (The fridge is in the kitchen.)
In “一个小厨房和一个客厅”, 和 (hé) is simply “and” for joining two nouns in a list.
- 小厨房和客厅 = a small kitchen and a living room.
Other options:
- 跟 (gēn) can also mean “and” in spoken Chinese, but it’s more common for people (e.g. 我跟他, me and him).
- 还有 (hái yǒu) means “and also / and in addition”:
- 我的公寓有一个小厨房，还有一个客厅。
→ “My apartment has a small kitchen, and it also has a living room.”
- 我的公寓有一个小厨房，还有一个客厅。
In this compact noun phrase “一个小厨房和一个客厅”, 和 is the most neutral and natural choice.
You can say:
- 我的公寓有一个小厨房和客厅。
This is understandable and heard in speech, but it sounds a bit less clear and slightly less standard, because it could be parsed as one small kitchen-and-living-room as a single unit.
Using 一个 before each noun:
- 一个小厨房和一个客厅
clearly shows there are two separate things: one small kitchen, and one living room.
In careful or written Chinese, repeating 一个 is more precise.
Both can be grammatically correct, but they answer slightly different questions:
我的公寓有一个小厨房和一个客厅。
- Focus: describing the features of your apartment.
- Implicit question: “What does your apartment have?”
我有一个公寓。
- Focus: stating that you own an apartment.
- Implicit question: “Do you have an apartment?”
In your full sentence, you want to talk about what the apartment contains, so it’s natural to make 公寓 the subject and say 公寓有….
- 公寓 (gōngyù) = apartment (the physical unit of housing; a countable object).
- 家 (jiā) = home / family / household, and also used to mean “my place / my home”.
So:
- 我的公寓 = my apartment (focusing on the apartment as property or a specific unit).
- 我家 (often without 的) = my home / my place (more about where I live / my household).
Your sentence:
- 我的公寓有一个小厨房和一个客厅。
→ You are describing a specific apartment that you own or rent.
If you say:
- 我家有一个小厨房和一个客厅。
→ My home has a small kitchen and a living room.
This is also very natural, but emphasizes your home rather than the fact that it is an apartment.
The comma ， joins two closely related clauses:
- 我的公寓有一个小厨房和一个客厅，
- 厨房里有一个冰箱。
Both describe the same apartment and its layout. In Chinese, it is very common to connect such related clauses with a comma instead of a period.
You could also write them as two separate sentences:
- 我的公寓有一个小厨房和一个客厅。厨房里有一个冰箱。
Both are correct. The version with the comma feels a bit more fluid and cohesive, like one flowing description.