林彪 Posted March 20, 2004 at 09:41 PM Report Posted March 20, 2004 at 09:41 PM 畫 (hua4) and 晝 (zhou4) Quote
geek_frappa Posted March 20, 2004 at 09:47 PM Report Posted March 20, 2004 at 09:47 PM 彤 (tong2) 形 (xing2) Quote
sunyata Posted March 21, 2004 at 04:44 AM Report Posted March 21, 2004 at 04:44 AM 侬 - nong 依 - yi Quote
Geiko Posted August 4, 2011 at 03:15 PM Report Posted August 4, 2011 at 03:15 PM It took me one whole year to realise that 及 was not like 乃 + a 捺 stroke. Or that 旅's right-bottom part was different from 氏 Quote
Lu Posted August 5, 2011 at 06:07 PM Report Posted August 5, 2011 at 06:07 PM As the thread's been dug up anyway... 茶 (cha2) and 荼 (tu2). Hard to tell apart if you don't see them together. Quote
skylee Posted August 5, 2011 at 06:20 PM Report Posted August 5, 2011 at 06:20 PM I think 荼 is usually only used in 荼靡 or 荼毒. Another similar pair is 余 and 佘, both are surnames. Quote
heifeng Posted August 31, 2011 at 03:53 AM Report Posted August 31, 2011 at 03:53 AM I kept misreading 髁 for 踝 the other day when both characters were popping up in a section of a book on skeletal muscles. At first I convinced myself it made sense...and then the more I thought of it, I knew I had made a mistake. I then learned the character 髁 and not to read in moving vehicles without glasses.... 踝 huái 髁 kē Quote
WestTexas Posted August 31, 2011 at 05:57 AM Report Posted August 31, 2011 at 05:57 AM personally I get 慌、惶、and 恍 confused because they are all the same radical and the phonetic components all rhyme Quote
Hofmann Posted September 1, 2011 at 06:18 PM Report Posted September 1, 2011 at 06:18 PM What's up with these old threads popping up? Well they're interesting so... The most easily mistaken character(s) are definitely 日 and 曰. Why? Because almost everybody who can write Chinese does not know the (being a prescriptivist here but...) real difference between them. And those reading this are most likely going "wtf is he talking about?" It's further confounded by the recent typefaces which describe the newly emerging way(s) of differentiating them, which might have something to do with their shape or the length of the middle horizontal stroke. The difference between 日 and 曰, in 楷書, is that the first two strokes touch in 日 and do not touch in 曰. That's it. The shape doesn't matter. In 行書, it is the shape, where 日 is obviously narrow (either that or the first two strokes definitely touch) and 曰 is obviously wide. 1 Quote
Glenn Posted September 1, 2011 at 06:38 PM Report Posted September 1, 2011 at 06:38 PM The first two? I thought it was the second and third. Quote
Hofmann Posted September 1, 2011 at 06:55 PM Report Posted September 1, 2011 at 06:55 PM See these images of 日 and 曰. 2 Quote
Glenn Posted September 1, 2011 at 07:23 PM Report Posted September 1, 2011 at 07:23 PM Wow. That's surprising. Quote
chaiknees Posted September 2, 2011 at 12:58 PM Report Posted September 2, 2011 at 12:58 PM I always have to take a second look when I come across 模 and 横 Quote
jbradfor Posted September 2, 2011 at 01:41 PM Report Posted September 2, 2011 at 01:41 PM Recently, for me it's been anything with 呂/? [can't type that second part, it's like a vertical stacked 口丨口.] 宮/官 is the absolute worst for me; depending on the font they can look pretty much identical, and they are often used in similar ways. 营/菅is bad for me as well, although I just noticed that 营 doesn't have the dot connecting the two boxes (at least in the font I'm using), unlike 宮. [Note that the traditional form of 营 is 營, which avoids the visual ambiguity; checking, there doesn't seem to be a character with the two 火 on top and 官 on the bottom, although I could have missed it.] EDIT: 菅 not the character I'm looking for..... What was it again? Right, 管. Oooh, never noticed that 管 and 营 have different radicals on top, now that I (finally!!) noticed that it should be easier to distinguish. 1 Quote
jbradfor Posted September 7, 2011 at 09:36 PM Report Posted September 7, 2011 at 09:36 PM Are we allowed to compared simplified vs traditional? If so, 墮 vs 堕gets my vote for today. Quote
Peter2010 Posted September 8, 2011 at 08:48 AM Report Posted September 8, 2011 at 08:48 AM how about these： 耒 vs. 来，未，末 于 vs. 干 监 vs. 临 戈 vs. 弋 代 vs. 伐 崇 vs. 祟 候 vs. 侯 狠 vs. 狼 奖 vs. 浆 权 vs. 杈 折 vs. 拆 浙 vs. 淅 呜 vs. 鸣 脊 vs. 背 署 vs 暑 Quote
Hofmann Posted September 8, 2011 at 09:54 AM Report Posted September 8, 2011 at 09:54 AM Are we allowed to compared simplified vs traditional? It could get technical. Anyone feel like telling the difference(s) between Simplified and Traditional 北? Nah bad example. 起. Quote
zhwj Posted September 10, 2011 at 08:08 AM Report Posted September 10, 2011 at 08:08 AM The most easily mistaken character(s) are definitely 日 and 曰....It's further confounded by the recent typefaces which describe the newly emerging way(s) of differentiating them' date=' which might have something to do with their shape or the length of the middle horizontal stroke.[/quote']The "recent typefaces" you refer to date back at least to the Ming Dynasty. I've got some reproductions of Wanli-era block texts (楷体 naturally), in which the difference between 日 and 曰 is (1) the overall width, and (2) the middle stroke of 曰 ends before the right wall. (I've seen scans of the handwritten Yongle Encyclopedia that show this same distinction). And if you look at scans of the Siku Quanshu, you can find that different scribes observed different distinctions -- some used unattached top strokes, others used a wide trapezoidal shape with a tiny mid-stroke. 1 Quote
Hofmann Posted September 10, 2011 at 10:17 PM Report Posted September 10, 2011 at 10:17 PM OK, I take back calling it "recent." I've only been looking at 唐楷 or earlier, and I thought it was a Republican or Qing thing, because scans of the 康熙字典 differentiate them by the first two strokes. Quote
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