So i recently started to learn Chinese, and i have to say it's been a very positive experience so far. I found the grammar refreshingly simple and the writing system not as intimidating as it first appeared. I still struggle with hearing tones but that will hopefully come with time.
But one thing that still gets me really frustrated is homophones. There are so many of them. And sometimes not even the tone is different. I know plenty of other languages have homophones, English has a bunch of them too, and most of the time you can infer through context which word is meant, but it's still tough for a beginner.
The advantage in Chinese is that the written form is usually very clearly distinguished even if the spoken word sounds the same. But there is one case i've come across where it really seems like the same word, written and sounds exactly the same, seems to be used for two completely different meanings and can't for the life of me figure out why: 只
Can someone please explain to me why this word is used to express both the idea of "only" and also at the same time is a counting word like 个 but for animals (and body parts?):
我只有一只狗
This sentence is so confusing to me. Why, Chinese, why?
Yeah, experience should make a lot of difference. I know there are certain things that looked, well... foreign in the beginning. And now I can just scan them and kinda just know. Auditory can be a struggle for me more so than reading, maybe because most of my learning is through apps. But also, I think it's a language with a lot of context-based things in general. Like with your example, you'd probably get used to certain words being in the same context and that would help with a lot of parsing. Even so, there can be regional differences with how it sounds, so it's not like natives never have any trouble either (which can also happen with English and dialects, depending on how extreme the dialect difference is).