All measure words

头 tóu

The Chinese measure word for large animals: cows, pigs, elephants.

头 counts large animals, especially farm animals: cows, pigs, sheep and donkeys, and also lions and elephants. Smaller animals take 只.

  • 一头牛yì tóu niúa cow
  • 一头猪yì tóu zhūa pig
  • 一头大象yì tóu dàxiàngan elephant

14 nouns that take 头

Most common first
猪zhūhog; pig牛niúox; cow羊yángsheep; goat汗hànperspiration; sweat狮子shī zilion恐龙kǒng lóngdinosaur; (old) (slang) ugly person驴lǘdonkey大蒜dà suàngarlic野猪yě zhūwild boar (Sus scrofa)骡子luó zimule蒜suàngarlic豹子bào zileopard骡luómule毛驴máo lǘdonkey

More measure words

The nouns come from the measure-word notes in CC-CEDICT, ordered by how often each word appears in film and TV subtitles. Many nouns take more than one measure word, and 个 often works in casual speech.