The Mandarin Chinese phrase '几 (jǐ)' is a question word used to ask about quantities or counts, particularly for numbers less than 10. It is equivalent to asking 'how many' in English when the expected answer is a small number. One common use of '几' is in asking about time, like asking what hour it is. Note that when answering questions with '几', you must use the actual number in your response, rather than repeating '几'.