Breakdown of Wǒ yǒu yì gè nǚ tóngxué, tā bǐ wǒ dà sān suì.
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 yǒu yì gè nǚ tóngxué, tā bǐ wǒ dà sān suì.
有 (yǒu) here means to have and is required to state possession.
- 我有一个女同学。
Wǒ yǒu yí ge nǚ tóngxué.
I have a female classmate.
Without 有, 我一个女同学 is incomplete and sounds like a fragment (literally “I one female classmate”), not a full sentence.
有 is also used for “there is / there are”:
- 我家有三个人。 – There are three people in my family.
- 教室里有很多学生。 – There are many students in the classroom.
So whenever you want to say “have / there is”, you normally need 有 in Chinese.
个 (gè) is a measure word / classifier. In Chinese, you almost always need a measure word between a number and a noun.
Pattern: number + measure word + noun
- 一个女同学 – one female classmate
- 三本书 – three books
- 两杯水 – two cups of water
个 is the most common and “default” measure word, often used when you’re not sure what to use, and it’s correct for 同学.
English doesn’t require a word like this, but in Chinese:
- ✗ 一女同学 (without 个) is ungrammatical in normal speech.
- ✓ 一个女同学 is correct.