In the period that the foreign students are learning Chinese language, they often feel confused with some similar words in appearances or meanings. In this case, they need to firstly understand the meanings, and more importantly, to remember in typical examples. The group of words 立刻and马上are always the main points in class when teachers teach Mandarin language. Both of them have the meaning of “right away”. But there are some tiny differences in the application situations.

With the same meaning that things will happen or happen closely after something, both words are adverbs indicating the time is short. If you pay enough attention, you may find Chinese people often say电影马上就要开始了and必须立刻写，否则就太晚了. That is to say, both words are the same in meaning but the differences are showed in grammar functions. Generally speaking, 马上is often used in oral Chinese while 立刻is seen in written form.

卖and售are also a group of words confusing for beginners to tell apart. As a verb, 售means to sell like售票and货物已售出. With the same meaning, 卖implies to change money with things or goods like 卖服装and卖洗衣机. If you learn Chinese language at Kunming Keats School, teachers will also tell you that 卖also carries the meaning of betraying the country, relatives, friends or his own conscience. The most frequently word you have heard might be 卖国求荣.

Even though the meaning of both words is the same, 卖is more frequently used than 售and 卖can be used for both oral Chinese and written form. However, 售is the written form and it is usually followed by the monosyllabic words like 售票and售货.

毛病and缺点are also have the same meaning of bad habits or shortcomings. But the former also carries the meaning of disease like胃有毛病. In addition, it can be used to describe the damage in machine, for instance, 这台机器出了毛病. On the contrary, 缺点has only the meaning of shortcoming. For example, 他的缺点就是太粗心了.