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A blog by jbradfor in General

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擅長 -- shàn​cháng​

jbradfor

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For a while I was rather despondent about ever learning the correct pronunciation for characters with multiple pronunciations. Recently, however, it's seemed much easier. Between focusing more on words rather than characters, and getting better at reading entire sentences so I understand the meaning, I can see that with some amount of further practice it won't require conscious thought to determine which reading to use.

This one, however, threw me. Since this refers to a person ("to be good at / to be expert in "), I assumed that 長 would be pronounced as zhǎng​ (as in 校長 , 董事長 , 處長 , etc).

Nope, it's cháng​.

At first I assumed it was an error on MDBG. But no, TW MOE, zdic.net, and nciku all agree.

Weird.

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6 Comments

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David Wong

David Wong 37

Posted

It would make sense if "擅長" were a noun, but it isn't. It's an adjective.

eg. 他擅长唱卡拉-OK。

jbradfor

jbradfor 681

Posted

Ah, that make more sense. Or, I should say, a bit less un-sense.

The context in which I saw it was "我实在不擅长....", so I took it as a noun.

ma3zi1

ma3zi1 42

Posted

A synonym is 善於, as in 他善於學習語言. Maybe the pronunciation for that word is a little easier to remember?

jbradfor

jbradfor 681

Posted

Easier to remember. Although I often confuse 善 with 害. Slight difference, no?

roddy

roddy 5842

Posted

See also 长处.

creamyhorror

creamyhorror 216

Posted

The context in which I saw it was "我实在不擅长....", so I took it as a noun.

I think you have a bit of a misconception here...X长 zhǎng​ means "person in charge of X". Also, in that sentence 擅长 has to be an adjective (a noun would require 是 after 不), so zhǎng​ doesn't fit.

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