办, 干 and 做

[Seanver]

Could someone tell me what's the difference between 办, 干 and 做? As far as I know, their meanings seem to overlap to some extent and it's not clear to me when to use, for example, 办 or 做

[renzhe]

I cant give you fine distinctions between these (they are mostly synonymous), but they are often bound to different expressions. E.g.

你做什么工作? What work do you do?

你干什么!? What are you doing?!

我不知道怎么办. I don't know what to do (how to act).

干工作 or 你办什么 don't work or at least they sound totally weird to me.

[skylee]

renzhe, I think if you are no longer able to explain things clearly perhaps you've made very good progress.

[renzhe]

Thank you, but actually, it's a trick.

Whenever I give a detailed information, I'm wrong, so now I simply pretend that I know but can't explain it (sh)

[linbj]

办，干 and 做 usually has the same meaning: to do, make or handle something. eg. 办事，handle affairs, 干活儿 do working, 做事，do a job, do something, 做人，behave yourself.

办 is bit a formal expression, eg in 办公室 office, some governmental division or department is ususally named as such and such 办公室，often abbreviated as such and such 办, eg 计划生育办公室 （Family Planning Office ），ab. 计生办 . But 干 and 做 can no be used this way.

Sometimes 做 and 干 can be used as a slang or vulgar verb in specific context to express strong feelings. eg. 做掉他 or 干掉他！ Kill him! 干她！

My English is not good enough, hope you can understand my explanation.

[高可文]

办 is similar in meaning to 处理，so that 办事 means "to take care of things" and 办派对 means something like "to take care of the stuff needed to throw a party."

办 is also used in the expression 怎么办 (="What to do?") as well as in the related 这/那么办。

干 is very similar in meaning to 做。In general I would say that 干 is more "casual" than 做，but that's just my impression. There are however a few phrases that almost always use 干。For example:

干掉 "to do away with"/"to get rid of"

干吗 "why" or in more colloquial english "what's up with that?"

干活儿 "to work"

(I'm not sure if it's incorrect to use 做 in these phrases, but I probably wouldn't.)

To get a feel for the difference between 干 and 活，try searching on Google Images for ”干活儿“ and "做工作”。Though their english translation is the same, “干活儿” returns a lot pictures of (mostly peasants) doing manual labor, while “做工作” returns besuited Chinese men sitting behind desks.

[wrbt]

For added fun, don't forget 搞

[高可文]

The other day a Chinese professor of mine said something like "有人说奥巴马要搞社会主义。" I didn't know 搞 could be used in this way; does anyone know if 做 or 干 could replace it here?

[wrbt]

I believe anyone here who can use 搞, 办,干, and 做 together in a reasonable sentence deserves to be named Forum Dictator for the month of March, with weekly events and parades commemorating their greatness.