SSBD part 4
How do you say "convenient" in Chinese? It's 方便 fāng biàn.
And what about "cheap"? That's 便宜 pián yí.
Notice how the same word 便 has 2 different pronunciations. It belongs to a group called heteronyms, or words that are written in the same way but pronounced and used differently.
We're going to look at 4 such examples in this post.
This is Part 4 of the ongoing series tagged Same Same But Different (SSBD).
1. 便
If you are trying to say "convenient", then the correct pronunciation is biàn (with the b-sound).
On the other hand, if you want to say "cheap", that's pián (with the p-sound).
2. 匙
To say "key" (as in house key or car key), we say 钥匙 yào shi.
The same word 匙 can be pronounced as chí in the context of utensils.
For example, soup spoon = 汤匙 tāng chí while teaspoon = 茶匙 chá chí.
3. 参
The commonly used form is 参 cān e.g. 参加 cān jiā (participate) or 参赛 cān sài (take part in a competition).
The less common variant is shēn.
The only noun I can think of which uses this is 人参 rén shēn which basically means ginseng.
4. 厦
厦 is not that frequently used unless you are reading a map printed in Chinese. Then you might notice the names of certain buildings being shown as "XXX 大厦" because 大厦 dà shà essentially means building or mansion.
The other variant is very very unique. In this case 厦 can also be pronounced xià.
The only instance this is used is the location name referring to 厦门 xià mén i.e. city of Xiamen, in Southeastern Fujian, China.
Some of the differences are so subtle that we may not notice them when using the words in our daily lives. For example, differences between the b- vs p- sounds or the sh- vs ch- sounds.
Listing them here helps to highlight the different pronunciation and allows easy reference.
Do take note of such words in future and be sure to use the correct pinyin :)