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this post was submitted on 04 Apr 2025
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languagelearning
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95% of the time people use 只 for dogs, so don't sweat it
Yeah that's the first numerator for animals I learned.
But legit, do the dogs have to be elongated to use 条?
What about snakes? Giraffes? Cats in summer?
I'm also a Chinese learner but afaik no, they don't need to be elongated to use tiao. Snakes, fish and dragons use tiao. There are some other animal counts that are more commonly observed including {匹|pi} for rideable animals (mules, donkeys, horses) and {头|tou} for cattle or livestock (pigs, cows). But nobody would blink if you used 只 as a non-native speaker across the board. Also lmao there was one time I used tou for {警察|jingcha} police officer and my friend picked me up on it.
as a novice learner this is absolutely hilarious
Heh, in spanish we also use "heads" for describing quantities of cattle
Same in english but we say 'head' for some reason not heads, so 'five head of cattle'