Characters That Look TOO Similar (相似到难以分辨的汉字)
I’ve seen a lot of posts floating around in the Chinese teaching/learning scene about similar characters like 己 & 已 and 未 & 末. But these posts never seem to include the characters that I have the most difficulty with! So I made my own :)
Note: Some of these characters don’t look similar if you use traditional characters, but I primarily use simplified.
怒 nù - anger / fury / flourishing / vigorous
恕 shù - to forgive
This is an example of one-way confusion. I learned 恕 as part of the phrase 恕我直言, but now, whenever I see 恕 I think it’s 怒 at first. But never the other way around.
拨 bō - to push aside with the hand, foot, a stick etc / to dial / to allocate / to set aside (money) / to poke (the fire) / to pluck (a string instrument) / to turn round / classifier: group, batch
拔 bá - to pull up / to pull out / to draw out by suction / to select / to pick / to stand out (above level) / to surpass / to seize
In class once I wrote what I thought was 拔 on the board…it was 拨. I was very embarrassed. These two always trip me up! They are by far my least favorite duo on this list.
苛 kē - severe / exacting
苟 gǒu - if / supposing / careless / negligent / temporarily / surname Gou
For some reason I am most embarrassed about confusing these two. I think it’s because when I look closely and carefully, they don’t seem that similar. But if I am not looking closely and carefully, they cause confusion.
茶 chá - tea / tea plant
荼 tú - thistle / common sowthistle (Sonchus oleraceus) / bitter (taste) / cruel / flowering grass in profusion
I saw a chengyu with 荼 (如火如荼) and totally thought it was 茶. I was so shocked when I realized otherwise! I guess the chengyu wouldn’t make much sense with 茶…oh well.
竟 jìng - unexpectedly / actually / to go so far as to / indeed
竞 jìng - to compete / to contend / to struggle
On the bright side, since these two characters are pronounced exactly the same, at least you don’t really have to worry about that aspect. The big issue would just be writing the wrong one.
丰 fēng - abundant / plentiful / fertile / plump / great / surname Feng
韦 wéi - soft leather / surname Wei
These characters are both last names, so watch out. You wouldn’t want to misread 韦礼安 as 丰礼安 or something.
暧 ài - (of daylight) dim / obscure / clandestine / dubious
暖 nuǎn - warm / to warm
These two really give me a headache. I need my glasses to tell them apart! They look a bit more distinct in traditional, but I still managed to think 暧/曖 by 孙盛希 was called 暖 for a solid month or so.
呜 wū - (onom.) for humming or whimpering
鸣 míng - to cry (of birds, animals and insects) / to make a sound / to voice (one’s gratitude, grievance etc)
I don’t really have an issue with 鸟 and 乌, but for some reason 鸣 and 呜 trip me up. I might need my glasses for them too haha.
妹 mèi - younger sister
姝 shū - pretty woman
I’ve seen both these characters in names. Except I thought 姝 was 妹. I blame 张惠妹! I think for the rest of my life I’ll be paranoid about saying someone’s name incorrectly due to these two.
廷 tíng - palace courtyard
延 yán - to prolong / to extend / to delay / surname Yan
I don’t actually know any words with 廷, but it can be used in names. In my experience, it’s especially common in Taiwan. But I have also seen 延 in names, so sometimes I have do a double take.
Honorable mention:
昼/晝 zhòu - daytime
画/畫 huà - to draw / picture / painting
书/書 shū - book / letter / document / to write
Whenever I read something in traditional Chinese, these triplets are the bane of my existence. I’ve given up on trying to distinguish them and just guess from context instead. People use use traditional, how do you do it?
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