When someone points out your Traditional Chinese has mistakes, these are the words you will hear.

 

Have you ever wondered: If you learn traditional Chinese, can you understand simplified Chinese?

Well... Since Simplified Chinese is a simplification of Traditional Chinese, if you can understand the original form, you should be able to recognize the simplified form. However, some words now have different meanings, and it will confuse the conversation.

For example, the phrase "put on the table" has different meanings in British and American English. In British English, it means to present something for discussion or consideration. In American English, it means to postpone or shelve something indefinitely. We know each word exactly, but we still have to guess the meaning of the whole sentence.

Like British and American English, if you use Simplified Chinese in Taiwan, we will first doubt that you are writing it wrong, and then we will recognize it as Simplified Chinese. Let's see some examples.

諾不輕信，故人不負我；諾不輕許，故我不負人。

诺不轻信，故人不负我；诺不轻许，故我不负人。

Would you be able to tell which words are different?

Easy to misread, right?

Misread 看錯字 means to make a mistake in the way that you read something.

In today's video, I would like to tell you that when someone points out your Traditional Chinese has mistakes, these are the words you will hear. 

Go back to the misread 看錯字.

The proverb 錯把馮京當馬涼, misread 馮京 as 馬涼, You can see how the mistake was made.

The story is a person named 馮京, he attends an exam and the examiner misreads his name as 馬涼, everyone laughs at the examiner.  Therefore, this proverb is used to describe someone who is careless and becomes a laughing stock.

Next, 寫錯 have two types. 

One is 錯字, sort of like you misspelled the word, but not really, more like you write F this way ㅏ or you write H this way ㅔ. 

The other is 錯別字, which means you have confused two words, as if you were writing dear as deer.

Be Careful, don't mix up 錯別字 and 用錯字

用錯字 means to use a word incorrectly.

For example, if you want to compliment your friend's clothes, and you say: 這件衣服很(This dress is )刺眼。The correct word is 亮眼. If you use 刺眼 to describe someone's dress, it means you think their dress is gaudy. It is going to be a big misunderstanding.

The difference between them is that 錯別字 is we know you are writing the wrong word, but we still know what you want to express, but 用錯字 is the meaning of the word is not what you have in mind and will cause a misunderstanding.

The next one is 聽錯 mishear, it means not hearing what someone says correctly or as intended and thinking something else was said.

你聽錯了，我想要的是雞，不是鴨。You misheard me, I want a chicken, not a duck.

說錯 misspeak

我說錯了，是13不是3。I misspoke. It's 13, not 3.

唸錯 pronounce mistakes.

我唸錯了，那是行家，不是行家。 I pronounced it wrong, it was 行家, not 行家