When the foreign students study Mandarin in Yunnan, they say they have difficulty in distinguishing the words which have the similar morpheme in the words. For example, the words 丰富 and 丰盛 have the similar morpheme 丰. They have similar meaning which refers to the various kinds of something. But they have different meanings when used respectively. 丰盛 is used to refer to the abundance concerning to the material aspects. 丰富can be used to describe the different types or the large scale of numbers of wealth, material, knowledge and experience. When it is used as a verb, it means enrich.

The word 丰盛can be used to describe foods and wines. The word丰富 refers to the things which could enrich the material as well as the spirit. For example, 丰富can modify the products, books, knowledge, experience, emotion, contents and programs. It is an adjective used in such case and it can be regarded as a verb as well. We will see some examples to understand the two words better.

The first example is that 昨天的宴会非常丰盛. The literal meaning of the sentence is that the banquet yesterday was in abundance. But the foreign students who learn to speak Chinese can not say 昨天的宴会非常丰富. Because the word 丰盛 is used to describe the foods and drinks, it can not be replaced by 丰富. The second example is like the following. the right sentence to express the idea that the contents of the book is rich should be expressed as 这本书的内容非常丰富 and can not be the sentence like 这本书的内容非常丰盛 since the word 丰盛is used to describe the different types of the foods and vegetables.

The third example is that 中国的水力资源非常丰富, 知识还没有充分开发和利用. The word 丰盛can not be used in the sentence for the focus of the sentence is the hydroelectric resource. But the foreign students can not say such sentence like中国的水力资源非常丰盛, 知识还没有充分开发和利用. The fourth example is that 他在商海已经闯荡十几年了,有着非常丰富的经商经验. The sentence wants to express the idea that he has rich experience in business for he has been in the business circle for years. So the sentence can not be said as the following. 他在商海已经闯荡十几年了,有着非常丰盛的经商经验. The fifth example is that one can say我想多参加一些社会活动，丰富自己的阅历和经验. But one can not say the sentence in this way我想多参加一些社会活动，丰盛自己的阅历和经验.

So we can conclude from the above examples that 丰盛can be used to describe foods while 丰富can describe contents, resources and experience.