In Shíèrge xiǎoshí shífēnzhōng why does 'hour', but not
'minute' have the classifier 'ge'?
Shíèrge xiǎoshí shífēnzhōng

Michael-K122
November 17, 2015

Robert-C7
November 17, 2015
One of my references says that minute
分钟 (fēnzhōng) is a quasi-counter,
i.e. a noun that acts as its own counter and so use of another
counter is prohibited. Hour 小时 (xiǎoshí) and
week 星期 (xīngqí) are special
quasi-counters and as such, use of the 个(ge) is
optional. Other quasi-counters are year and
day.