Foreigners often feel confused when they encounter the similar words that are alike in both meanings and appearance during the process when they learn Chinese in China. However, it will be easier for them to tell apart when putting them into the actual examples and situations. This lesson will illustrate several groups of synonyms to explain for the students.

A group of similar words often seen when they study Chinese is the “补偿”, “补充”, “补贴” and “补助”. When we use “补偿”, we often mean to express that we have some loss in a certain aspect and to gain in another aspect. We often hear “补偿损失” or “补偿自己的过错”. Generally speaking, it emphasizes to compensate because of one’s fault.

However, “补充” means to supplement the things that are short of, thus making it more substantial. So we can say “补充营养” and “补充知识”. When foreigners learn Mandarin, they should know that it has a very wide range of objects such as opinions, goods, and materials and so on. For instance, “我要讲的就是这些，还有什么问题请大家补充”.

“补贴” and “补助” are very close in meaning, both indicate to helpful especially in financial. Both of them can be functioned as noun and verb. When used as a noun, it implies the help form financial. As a verb, it stresses to help somebody financially. Here are some examples provided to those who study in China. “交通补贴”, “补贴他一笔生活费”, “领取困难补助”, “市政府为这个计划不住了100万元”.

When foreigners go to school to study Mandarin, they will learn the pair of words “财产” and “财富”, which are easy to distinguish after explaining and illustrating. Usually, “财产” is mostly the substantial things like money, materials, houses, industries lands and so on. It is a part of “财富”. What we often hear is “个人财产”, “私人财产”.

For the word “财富”, it includes everything that are valuable for people. It can be both the specific things we need and the abstract such as knowledge and spiritual wealth. When we learn Chinese language, we often say “精神财富和物质财富”, “团结就是一笔巨大的财富”.

Let’s move our attention to the next group of words “搜集”, “收集” and “采集”, all of which mean to gather things together. “搜集” is to search and gather, emphasizing to find out the things that are hidden and put them together. In Mandarin learning curses, we often hear “搜集资料” and ”搜集信息”.

However, “收集” is to gather things, stressing to put together the things that are scattering in different places. For example, “这本相册里收集着孩子从小到大的多有照片”. Teachers in Chinese language school will tell you that “采集” carries the meaning of collecting materials, emphasizing picking or making inquiries to find materials and gather them. For instance, “采集标本”.

The differences between “参与” and “参加” will be explained when teachers teach Mandarin language. The former one means to join the planning or discussion of the plans like “参与讨论”. However, the later one implies to take part in the activity or certain organization. We can say “参加演出” and “参加活动”.

But students in Mandarin language courses in China should know that “参与” has a very limited objects like plans, discussions or settlement of the things. On the contrary, “参加” is very widely used in all kinds of activities and organizations. For instance, “李老师也和同学们一起参加了义务劳动”.