Pronunciation of 暖和

[gougou]

I learned it as nuan huo, which is also what my dictionaries have. Google IME doesn't come up with it for nuan huo, yet finds it under nuan he. Microsoft IME finds it for either. I can't remember ever hearing anybody say nuanhe, so is that outright wrong, or an alternate usage like these.

[muyongshi]

Outright wrong! But since you brought up that thread I remembered another one to add to those list...

[imron]

Perhaps it's a change they made to their Sogou database, to make it less like the Sogou database. QIM (for Macs) uses the Sogou database and correctly gets it as nuanhuo. Nuanhe gets you 暖合。

[Josh2007]

Foreigners are generally taught to pronounce it nuanhuo. But: there are plenty of Chinese who do pronounce it nuanhe. If you stay in China for longer and get out into the provinces you will probably meet many people who say nuanhe, and nuanhe is listed as a valid alternative in the ABCD dictionary.

One could query the status of entries in Wenlin. After all, the most authoritative lexicographical source on standard Chinese is the Contemporary Chinese Dictionary which does not give nuanhe as an option. I believe that many of the Wenlin entries that are not from the Contemporary Chinese Dictionary are from the larger Da Hanyu Cidian (which has 400,000 words and was a project directly supervised by the State Council). Anyway, I am not sure whether Wenlin is listing it as a substandard alternative, or as a genuinely recommendable alternative, but I think you will find if you ask Chinese people that they do accept nuanhe as a valid alternative pronunciation. Sometimes learners have to learn a sort of "ideal type" of a language, and come away with fixed viewpoints owing to the way the language was taught them. The real language may be more fluid, and so native speakers may have a broader concept than learners. The bottom line is that foreigners should say nuanhuo as the default variant, but if any of your Chinese friends say nuanhe, it's not necessarily wrong.

[jonaspony]

I learnt nuanhuo, but all my Chinese friends used nuanhe and assured me either was OK.

[fireball9261]

I learned nuanhuo from my parents and relatives, but we are southern Chinese, so... In school, I think I learned nuanhe. I also accept both as good pronounciations.

[Quest]

I say nuanhuo, huo is an older pronunciation.

[HashiriKata]

The common pronunciation for 暖和 is /nuǎnhuo/ but the very similar looking 缓和 is read /huǎnhé/.

Josh2007: any dictionary al all is capable of containing mistakes, including Wenlin (I use Wenlin and I do occasionally spot mistakes there: some are typos, some are simply due to lack of knowledge).

[Josh2007]

HashiriKata, my Chinese friends have frequently commented that translations of various chengyu in Wenlin are wrong, or have the wrong point. I don't have a list, but 痴情 is supposedly a 褒义词, not a negative word, but the English translation "unrequited love" makes it sound bad. There are lots of things like this.

[hhjk9901]

NUAN HUO is correct.

Don't be confused with the pervasive mistake, for it still a mistake. Just as:

坐骑 zuo qi, not zuo ji

骠骑 piao ji, not piao qi

阿弥陀佛 a mi tuo fo, not e mi tuo fo

[magores]

I just asked my co-workers.

One pronounced it: nuan he

Six pronounced it: nuan huo

The one that said "he" is from the far north of China (near Russia and Korea), while the rest are from Hebei/Beijing.

/Just a little anecdotal evidence for whatever it's worth.

[Xiao Xu]

Language is changing. Also dictionaries sometimes different with contemporary oral accent