When communicating in Chinese you may often make mistakes using Chinese grammar like:

False:

    北京大学有几个留学生？

    Běijīnɡ Dàxué yǒu jǐ ɡè liúxuéshenɡ?

True:

    北京大学有多少个留学生？

    Běijīnɡ Dàxué yǒu duōshǎo ɡè liúxuéshenɡ?

 

汉语里，“几”表示大于一而小于十的不定数目。病句用“几”来询问主要承担对外汉语教学任务的北京语言学院的外国留学生的人数，与客观实际情况不符。应改“几”为“多少”。不管问话人本身是否了解北京大学的留学生的人数，用“多少”询问，要主动、灵活得多。因为“多少”代表的数目范围很广，可大可小。

In Chinese, 几 represents a proximate number larger than one and smaller than ten. It is unreasonable to use 几 to inquire the number of students in such an institute as Beijing University. Covering a much wider range of numbers,　多少 proves to be a more efficient, flexible way of asking about number. Thus, we use 多少 instead of 几个.