friend / companion

[bud01]

I am studying "remembering simplified hanzi" for chinese. 20. is

I like to double check what I am going through so have used the web and a chinese dictionary.

Well the above is wrong, its not companion, its friend, or peng2 (peng2you).

This is companion?

Yes, companion could be taken to mean friend but not necessarly, you could be forced into a situation whereby a person or animal became your companion for an extended period of time, say on a trip, and you had no option but to accept it.

They are your companion, but not your friend, maybe the dog eat your cat.

So back to the orginal reference, "remembering simplified hanzi", has this error vaildidated my double checking of every thing (actually triple), or am I going to far?

Im very new to learning chinese, I will also be studying English again this year because I am very poor in my tounge.

Thank you.

Edited January 14, 2010 at 01:06 AM by roddy

[necroflux]

I think I read this post 5 times, and I still have no idea what you're talking about.. hahaha

Edit - okay I think yeah, you're just reading too much into things. The word companion is probably used as a loose and direct synonym to "friend", where as you point out that isn't always accurate. For all intents and purposes you are correct that 朋 does best match "friend" and 伙伴 matches "companion". But I don't think such small differences are worth stressing over so early in your studies, leave the subtleties for 3 years down the road.

Edited January 14, 2010 at 03:44 AM by necroflux

[GeoffC]

I agree with the above post. The book is just trying to give you a simple word/term to remember.

Also, are you aware there is a PDF Errata document available for the book. Search with Google for "remembering simplified hanzi errata".

Keep at it.