"这是你的爸爸吗?"
Translation:Is this your father?
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I'm a bit confused about when we need a counter (个) when using 这.
So the tips section says:
"We also need a measure word after 这 (zhè, this), 那 (nà, that) and 哪 (nǎ, which)"
However the sentence in this exercise is:
这是你的爸爸吗?(no counter)
If I translate that to English with Google Translate (not a good source of truth, I know) it does translate to:
"Is this your father?"
Just for the sake of it I tried to translate this:
这个人是你的父亲吗?
And that is translated to:
Is this man your father?
Which does makes sense. So this is my theory, please correct me if I'm wrong:
这, just like the word "this" in English, can be used either as a pronoun (I like this / This is good) or a determiner (I like this thing / This book is good). If it's used as a pronoun (for example acting as a subject or object), then it doesn't need the counter, whereas if it act as a determiner (modifies a noun) then you need the counter between 这 and the noun.
Am I right?
If that is the case then I think the lesson's tips should be rephrased a bit.