几
jǐ
In real, traceable use. Part of the curated seed collection; community review is coming.
Traditional: 幾
How many — asked when the answer is expected to be small, about ten or fewer. Before a noun it needs a measure word: 几个人? 'how many people?', 几本书? 'how many books?'. It also asks the time and the day: 几点? 'what time?', 星期几? 'what day of the week?'. In a statement it means 'a few': 几个朋友 'a few friends'.
Đại từ nghi vấn hỏi số lượng nhỏ, thường từ mười trở xuống: mấy. Đứng trước danh từ thì phải có lượng từ: 几个人? (mấy người?), 几本书? (mấy quyển sách?). Cũng dùng để hỏi giờ, hỏi thứ: 几点? (mấy giờ?), 星期几? (thứ mấy?). Trong câu kể, 几 nghĩa là “mấy, vài”: 几个朋友 (mấy người bạn).
PronounRegister: neutral
Examples
Editorial example (illustrative, not a corpus attestation) — awaiting a native-speaker check
Sources & notes
Hán-Việt bridge batch 063 (2026-11-14). Headword, Traditional form and pinyin checked against CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0) source ↗ · Hán-Việt reading: Unihan kVietnamese source ↗ · No Vietnamese entry is linked as its twin; the Hán-Việt reading is given character by character. Definition, literal gloss and example sentence are original; the example has not had a native-speaker check yet.
Common questions
What does “几” mean?
How many — asked when the answer is expected to be small, about ten or fewer. Before a noun it needs a measure word: 几个人? 'how many people?', 几本书? 'how many books?'. It also asks the time and the day: 几点? 'what time?', 星期几? 'what day of the week?'. In a statement it means 'a few': 几个朋友 'a few friends'.
Is “几” formal or informal?
几 is generally neutral.