This dungeon contains monsters that refine your training on:
In Cantonese, whenever we want to state a quantity or talk about an object, we usually need to put a classifier. In English, there are some sentences we can say that have this classifier mechanic, but it is not always required. For example, we can say I have a stack of papers, You have a bunch of stuff, or I can see a school of fish. Alternatively these could be said as I have a lot of papers, I have stuff, and I can see a group of fish. Notice in some situations, a classifier is still used, but in others it is dropped.
One of the reasons classifiers are used (and are helpful) is that Cantonese has a lot of words that sound the same, and potentially even have the same tone. Using a classifier allows us to better understand what is being said since we can narrow down the usage of the word based on the classifier used. You don’t have to worry about this too much. In a lot of situations, you could get away with just using the generic classifier 個 (go3) for a wide variety of objects, especially when you don’t remember or don’t know which classifier to use. I would say that it isn’t a mortal sin to use 個 if you don’t know the classifier. People will most likely still understand what you are saying even if it isn’t 100% correct. Just use it until you learn the appropriate one :). Here are some examples:
The above can also be read as I have an apple.