Chinese countable/uncountable nouns (How do they work? Examples?) I recall in Mandarin class, my teacher would often discuss an idea about countable nouns. I never really understood how one would easily determine when one is faced with a countable vs uncountable noun. So I did a bit of research and found this site. I am now trying to verify that the situation works in a similar fashion in Mandarin and more importantly I am interested in one or two Chinese examples:



Finally and most importantly, is this idea of countable nouns intertwined with measure words? If so, how?

UPDATE:

So I did a bit more research and ran across an italki discussion where chinese speakers said this does not exist because everything is countable in Chinese. However a search revealed these samples. At this point I don't know who is correct but more insight would be helpful. Did the wiki have it wrong or is the concept mentioned something other than what I've indicated in the title. 



UPDATE 2:

So, in order to reconcile the apparent differences I did some more research and found the following information. The presence of quantifiers, seem to me, to relate closely to the idea of measure-words, which, I believe is the point my teacher was trying to convey. 



UPDATE 3:

Just to clarify. I accept the solution offered however this site still indicates some exception to the rule.

(countable) time; a measurement of a quantity of time; a numerical indication of a length of time




Chinese Grammar Info reports on the relationship between measure-words and nouns:
I think it is a terribly bad idea learning Mandarin by trying to map grammar from Western languages onto it.

There is no such thing as countable nouns in Chinese, precisely because nouns do not have plurals.

Conversely, you can make any noun ”countable” by adding a classifier to it： 你要一杯咖啡吗？