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thaumasiotes01/22/20251 replyview on HN

> Chinese has gotten by for thousands of years without any plurals at all.

Chinese has plurals; 们 has no other use.


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zdragnar01/22/2025

Counting words and 们 aren't the same, as they aren't declensions. You add on the syllable rather than actually changing the syllable of the noun itself.

Granted, that's still different from saying that Mandarin doesn't have a concept of plural, but I think the underlying point- no conjugation or declension- is very different from the other languages being discussed.

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