Honestly, I’m not even sure how to explain this one. 个 is the most common measure word in Chinese, with a similar grammatical role as the word “piece” in a piece of cake or a piece of paper. Unlike piece, 个 can be used with most nouns.
We use it with Ro when he’s already holding something, say a spoon, and wants another one. We say, “你已经有一个了，不在给你了” i.e., “you already have one, we’re not giving you another.” Or “只能有一个” i.e., “you can only have one.” But now he uses 个 to mean “I want another one!”
In English it would be like a baby wanting a second piece of cake and, instead of saying “want” or “cake”, saying “piece!”
Ro started daycare two weeks ago, so chances are the next word will be an English one. We are still trying our best to speak Chinese to him at home, but I can already tell he is forgetting some Chinese. He knew the Chinese names of all of his animal magnets two weeks ago, and now, who knows? When he comes home from daycare, we are talking to him about dinner and bedtime, not about animals, and there’s very little time to play before bed so unfortunately the language immersion time is limited. I’m a little sad, but I do love English too. I want to share both of these languages with him and I’m not sure how. 😦
Etymology Adventures 