Vietnamese Classifiers

In English, we have countable nouns and non-countable nouns. For example if we try to treat them the same, the non-countable nouns sound awkward.

I would like to buy a spoon. Countable.
I would like to buy a cutlery. Not countable.

There is a cow. Countable.
There is a cattle. Not countable.

Non-countable nouns are abstract. In order to make them concrete, you have to modify the noun with another word. For cutlery, we would have to say, a piece of cutlery; for cattle, we would add, a head of cattle.

Both piece and herd are called classifiers. Other examples of classifiers are: a stick of gum, a bowl of cereal, a bar of silver. You can't just walk up to the bank and ask for a silver. You need to tack on that measure word for the abstract term silver to make any concrete sense.

Vietnamese and other Asian languages rely extensively on measure words because many of the nouns are abstract. While you might be able to scrape by in day to day speaking without them, you'll need to use measure words in order to be clearly understood, and to be perceived as a competent speaker. Here are some of the more common measure words in Vietnamese:

cái - just about anything	bài - texts like drawings or stories
chiếc - like cái, but with more intimacy	câu - sentimental works like lyrics
con - animals, children, some objects	cây - things shaped like sticks
ngồi - houses	quả/trái - things shaped like globes
tòa - significant buildings, statehouses	quyển/cuốn - booklike things
việc - events	tờ - sheet paper things
chuyện - general business	lá - cardsized paper things

Let's see a measure word in practice.

Tôi có một bưởi. Wrong. In this sense, saying I have a pomelo is as awkward as saying "I have a dynamite."
Tôi có một quả bưởi. Right. I have a pomelo fruit.
Tôi có hai quả bưởi. Right. I have two pomelo fruits.

One last thing to note. Measure words are necessary for describing countable, concrete things. You would not use a measure word if there is no specific object. For example, the proper word for pomelo orchard is vườn bưởi, not vườn quả bưởi. With this phrase, the word pomelo describes the orchard. Therefore, the fruit needs no classifier.