What is the difference between 脆 and 酥?

[anonymoose]

What is the difference between 脆 and 酥?

According to my dictionary, both mean 'crisp(y)', but I asked a native speaker and she insisted they are different, and that for example, potato crisps/chips are 脆 whereas a cake might be 酥. So what actually do 脆 and 酥 mean?

[tigidy]

lf a hard good can be easilly and quickly break,lt can say 脆.

lf it is a structure fluffy good,and it can be easily and quickly breaked,it can say 酥.

And i think 酥 is in 脆, in most time 酥 is said to food,but 脆 can be said to other thing,for example rail, plastic.

[kelly_web]

脆 and 酥 are two feeling of mouth when you eat something.

酥 : something in your mouth, and while it touchs your teeth, seems like it is geting loosely and smoothly. and you will feel so good.

now if you are in china ,you can try "蝴蝶酥" and "酥糖".

脆：something is hard,but not too hard.

if you have had 脆麻花, 豌豆脆, it will help you understand the meaning of 脆。

[againstwind]

Just need unnderstand that 酥, as an adjective, may indicate 酥软 (soft).

e.g.

这块拿破仑蛋糕吃起来非常酥软。

她给我做按摩时，我觉得全身酥麻。

走了一天的路，我累得两腿酥软。

[zhrhipc]

酥 and 脆 are both used to describe something that is easy to be pulled or pushed apart.

somethins is 酥 means that if you break it, it will become dust or granule.

somethins is 脆 means that if you break it, it will become two or three pieces.

[chenpv]

I am not a pundit on this, but I agree that those two confer different meanings. IMHO, ‘脆’ comes along with the rigidity of a material, suggesting it is less flexible but vulnerable to major changes in shape. Thus, it is an inner characteristic of a material. Whereas ‘酥’, I believe, depicts the fluffy state of an object after fermentation or inflation. It says nothing about crispness, though in some situations fermentation or inflation doesn't change the intrinsic crispness of this object. Therefore, some snacks can be both '酥' and '脆'，while some cakes can only be '酥' and '软'. When you flex a bit, you might find your muscles inflated with blood and refreshed with soreness, then it is described with '酥'麻.

[chenpv]

somethins is 酥 means that if you break it' date=' it will become dust or granule.

somethins is 脆 means that if you break it, it will become two or three pieces.[/quote']Oh, when my heart broke into halves, it happened to be '脆', while when my heart broke into pieces, it happened to be '酥'.

[tanhql]

from my dictionary.

脆 - 容易弄碎弄裂

eg. 这瓜又甜又脆。

酥 - 松而易碎

eg. 虾片一炸就很酥。

in my perspective, 脆 is more compacted than 酥. like an apple can be 脆, but cannot be 酥.