频繁 and 频密

[Luoman]

My Singapore friend was talking about a railway line where traffic was very heavy and trains run every five minutes. He used the word 频密。 When I mentioned this word to my friend from Mainland China, he said he never heard of such a word. He would rather say 频繁。And indeed, I myself have never seen it in any dictionary. So I want to ask if 频密 is something of a local usage in Singapore and not used in other places. Thanks.

[skylee]

頻密 is a very common term IMHO. You can describe very frequent buses, trains etc using 班次頻密.

[skylee]

This topic reminds me of this old thread -> Why 月台 ?

[Melody_jyf]

I think 频繁 is common,I rarely use 频密

[coolnicholas]

在大陆好象只有＂频繁＂，很少看见过＂频密＂这个词

[mesuper]

In china mainland,we also use "紧张" to describe the situation of tense transportation.

[shibo77]

"频密" is also used in the mainland, but it is more specific than "频繁". "频繁" is simply "frequent", "频密" means that the schedule is both "frequent and busy (densely occupied)". As in "I have a busy day ahead, my schedule is 频密.", "The team has a tough schedule ahead, scheduled with 频密的 competitions."

[mandel1luke]

shibo is right, there are slight nuance difference

"频密" - frequent + tightly packed ie. dense - train keeps coming!

"频繁 - frequent + busy

频密 is more specific

in reality, not much difference though

it's not a Spore thing