Clothes and Accessories - KS2 Mandarin

How to say 'I wear' in Mandarin

When talking about what you wear in Mandarin, there are two phrases that can be used:

To say ‘I wear a jumper’ you would not simply say Wǒ chuān zhe máo yī - you have missed out the Mandarin equivalent of ‘a’.

In Mandarin, measure words (often called ‘classifiers’) are used to classify the type of object being discussed.

Measure word	Use
yí jiàn	For sleeved clothing, eg coats, shirts, and jumpers
yì tiáo	For narrow and long clothes, eg skirts and trousers
yì shuāng	For pairs, eg shoes and socks

So, to say ‘I wear a jumper’ in Mandarin, you would say Wǒ chuān zhe yī jiàn máo yī.

As with clothing, measure words are used for accessories.

Some are the same as for clothing, but there are additional ones too.

Measure word	Use
yì dǐng	For hats
yí fù	For glasses
yì tiáo	For narrow and long accessories, eg scarfs and necklaces

As with clothing, to say ‘I wear glasses’ you would need to include the measure word for 'a pair of':

Wǒ dài zhe yí fù yǎn jìng - I wear [a pair of] glasses