Jump to content
Chinese-Forums
  • Sign Up

Easily Confused Chinese Characters


taijidan

Recommended Posts

Does anyone know any good list of Easily Confused Chinese Characters. (Simplified Chinese)

I saw wiktionary has a list, but it doesn't look that extensive:

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Appendix:Easily_confused_Chinese_characters

I am sure I once came across a good list somewhere on the net, but can't remember where.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Confusibles are surely a personal thing - I mean, a lot of the so-called confusibles mentioned in that Wiki article are only confused due to poor materials, and taking things to an extreme, one could agonize over the difference between items as simple as 土 versus 士 (see e.g. Hoenig's book). That being said, some of the examples in this thread might be a bit tricky!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

http://www.zein.se/patrick/3000char.html

From the site:

"Curly brackets "{...}" are mostly used when giving references to characters that are similar to the listed ones either in shape. This is to help you avoid miswriting/misreading. The same marking is also used for references to characters with similar meaning but different pronunciation."

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

(one dot on the left)  (one dot on the left, one dot/horizontal at the bottom on the right)  (two dots on the left)

Yesterday I had a discussion with a colleague about these three words and we got ourselves hopelessly confused (because of the overlapping meanings and pronunciations). Here is my attempt to make them clear(er) ...

(one dot on the left, radical 示) -

pronunciation 1 - qi2; meaning 1 - an earthly god as in 神祇, 祇園 as in the one in Kyoto

pronunciation 2 - zhi1; meaning 2 - 正、恰、只 (only, but, as variant of 只)

(one dot on the left, one dot/horizontal at the bottom on the right, radical 示) -

pronunciation 1 - zhi1; meaning 1 - respectfully

pronunciation 1 - zhi1; meaning 2 - 適﹑僅﹑只

(two dots on the left, radical 衣) -

pronunciation 1 - qi2; meaning 1 - a monk's cassock (尼法衣)

pronunciation 2 - zhi1; meaning 2 - 但、正好; 同「祇」 (but, only)

And and are each other's variant. And is the same as (同) in meaning 2, making them all the same under some circumstances ...

Better?

PS - when I said one/two dot(s) on the left, actually I meant one/two dot(s) between the two parts ...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...

Here's another pair: 辛 and 幸. What I hate about these little bastards is that they look alike and sound alike but have completely opposite meanings (compare 辛苦 and 幸事).

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm not sure what the deal is with 粘 and 黏.

According to my dictionaries, 粘 is zhān and 黏 is nián, but it seems that most people, in my experience, read both as nián. Is nián a legitimate reading of 粘? At least Sougou IME also gives 粘 as an option for nián.

:conf

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Wenlin says:

"Sometimes 粘 is used as the simple form of 黏 nián 'sticky'; in fact, the 汉字正字手册 says that this is correct. But some dictionaries differentiate between 粘 and 黏, including 频率词典."

What's interesting as an aside is the apparent disagreement; I'd always thought there was an official, unified line on character simplification.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The Guifan dictionary that comes with Pleco has this to say:

黏 nián 形容能把一种东西粘(zhān)连在另一种东西上的性质。*1955年《第一批异体字整理表》将“黏”作为“粘”的异体字予以淘汰。1985年《普通话异读词审音表》审定“粘”读zhān,1988年《现代汉语通用字表》确认“黏”为规范字,表示以上意义;“粘”不再表示这个意义。

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and select your username and password later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Click here to reply. Select text to quote.

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...