In English, we add ‑s to mean more than one thing (for example, apples or books). But in Chinese, it’s not always necessary to show that something is plural.
In the example below, it doesn’t matter if we’re referring to one watermelon or multiple watermelons: It will be clear to a Chinese speaker that you’re asking about the price of watermelons in general.
However, you'd need to add 这些 (zhèxiē) to show that you're talking about specific (plural) watermelons.
Here are a few more words you can use to show that you’re talking about more than one thing.
| singular | plural |
|---|---|
| 一 (yī), one |
一些 (yìxiē), some |
| 这 (zhè), this |
这些 (zhèxiē), these |
| 那 (nà), that |
那些 (nàxiē), those |