重视/ 重要 Where To And How To Use.

[Shi Tong]

Hello all,

I've been debating with myself about how to use 重视 and 重要. I think I might already have some idea about it, but I wanted to see if everyone confirms my suspicion.

Basically, from what I can gather, and I will use Chinese for this, as I can give some examples:

"中国人很重视吃" means "Chinese people treat eating as a very important thing to do"..

"中国人很重视教书" is also a correct example of a sentence like this, "Chinese people treat learning as a very important thing"..

重要 is more like something you can own or eat or do.. but I'm not sure about this analysis, and this is where I need help.. examples:

"吃饭真的有怎么重要吗" means "is it really that important that we eat" (now?) the implication is "are you so hungry that we have to stop what we're doing to eat?"

"买这本书有怎么重要吗" means "is it really that important to buy that book" the implication that the book may not be worth the money spent on it.

In this way you cant say: 中国人很重要买书.. it would have to be 重视 and you cant say 买这本书有怎么重视吗.. but I'm not sure.. maybe you can say this second sentence..

Any help would be greatly appreciated.. over to the experts!!

PS: I'm not entirely sure where to put this post.. in here or elsewhere? Either way.. if it needs moving, can someone lovely move it for me?

Thanks!! :rolleyes:

[chrix]

moved.

[xiaocai]

My grammar is not very good but I will have a try.

The meaning are more or less the same so you can you them to describe the same things. But the big difference is, generally speaking, 重视 is a verb whereas 重要 is an adjective. So they are grammatically not interchangeable.

For example you can even say that you 重视 something that is 重要, but not the other way round.

[rivercao]

I'm not an expert but I think this two words simply have different syntactical functions.

1.重视 is a verb, it means to respect, to pay attention to, to take sth serious.

eg:

我们应该重视教育。

农民的生存问题在过去没有受到重视。

2.重要 is an adjective, it simply means "important".

eg:

今天领导的讲话非常重要。

这本书对于我来说很重要。

他做出了一个重要的决定。

Hope that helps. :rolleyes:

[stonelee]

1.重视 is a verb, it means to respect, to pay attention to, to take sth serious.

2.重要 is an adjective, it simply means "important".

I agree with xiaocai and rivercao~!

"吃饭真的有怎么重要吗" "买这本书有怎么重要吗"

怎么used here is wrong~!You should change it into 这么.

"吃饭真的有这么重要吗" "买这本书有这么重要吗"

[Shi Tong]

Helloooo

Thanks all!!

这么 and 怎么.. interesting.. strangely enough, I was a bit aprehensive about this one because as far as I could hear a lot of people seem to say "zen4me".. I realised that this was a very strange configuration, because as far as I was aware, 怎么 is pronounced zen3me and 这么 is pronounced zhe4me. I know what both of them "mean".. but I thought they were two seperate words..

Of course, thinking about it, this comes from mispronunciation of the word, getting the prefix of z- mixed up with zh-.. typical Taiwanese mispronunciation!

Grr.... At least now I know that when people say zen4me, they mean zhe4me. hahaha

I need to get into my head about verbs, adverbs, adjectives etc.. I always forget which is what, though I know how it works. Whenever I get talked to about grammar it sounds like someone is saying:

"verb verb, adjective.. adjective verb, describing word, noun noun, adjective verb". How on earth can I remember what each one is?! I blame the English teaching system which stopped teaching grammar to my age group, and bare in mind that my grammar is actually quite good!

[skylee]

"中国人很重视教书" is also a correct example of a sentence like this, "Chinese people treat learning as a very important thing"..

Consider replacing 教書 (teaching) with 教育 (education).

[Shi Tong]

Thanks skylee.. I couldn't remember the pronunciation of 教育, and instead of writing 教yi4 (which is definately wrong), I thought I'd go down the 书 route. ;)

[creamyhorror]

Dude, if you're learning a foreign language, you really should get the meanings of "verb", "noun", "adjective" and "adverb" clear at least. It's really really simple.

In English, you [verb] [adjective] [noun] [adverbial]ly. You kiss tall women ruthlessly, for example. Or you engender rude discussions flatulently. Et cetera.

[Shi Tong]

Dude, if you're learning a foreign language, you really should get the meanings of "verb", "noun", "adjective" and "adverb" clear at least. It's really really simple.

In English, you [verb] [adjective] [noun] [adverbial]ly. You kiss tall women ruthlessly, for example. Or you engender rude discussions flatulently. Et cetera.

ABSO****INGLUTELY!!

I totally agree, but it's something I've always struggled with. It's not because I dont understand the concepts of the grammar, and when explained on paper, I totally get it, but it's after that I forget which grammatical word joins up with which grammatical concept.

For example, I know there's a doing word, and one is one which describes the doing of, and I know one basically means to add ly at the end, and this is all very simple, but which one sticks to which word? I always forget.

In fact, today I was so pi**ed off by not knowing this that I went onto a simple grammar rules website and renamed the grammar words that I could remember what they mean:

Verbing: A doing action or word- I was WASH(verb)ING the dishes.

I still cant remember.. but I am going to look at the sheet I wrote every day now to see if I can remember which word has which function.. otherwise I'm dooooooooooooooooooooooooomed.

[jbradfor]

and bare in mind that my grammar is actually quite good!

LOL, I really hope that was on purpose and no one else got it.... he doth protest too much, methinks. <_<

[creamyhorror]

Shi Tong: If you memorise the sentence "I am verbing your nouns right now", you know a verb is an action and a noun is a thing. Then you look at the word "adverb" and remember that it describes a "verb", i.e. the way or manner an action is carried out: "I am verbing quickly". You therefore realise that "adjective" must describe a noun: "Those are some fine nouns you have." There, mnemonic done.

LOL, I really hope that was on purpose and no one else got it.... he doth protest too much, methinks. <_<

It's a spelling issue, so it wasn't really ironic to me - just slightly unfortunate, maybe.

[Shi Tong]

Bear in mind is correct as far as I no. :rolleyes:

Yeah, since yesterday I think I've got a few of those simple grammar things down-

Verbings (I'm Verbing my homework)

Adescribe (I'm Adescribing your hair)

Adverbly (I'm running Adverbly)

Noun (obviously a name)-- (I'm combing your Noun).

:blink:

heh.

[Glenn]

Looks like Schoolhouse Rock might be helpful.

Nouns

Verbs

Adjectives

Adverbs

Prepositions

Pronouns

Conjunctions

Interjections

Man, I love those. I remember watching them in school when I was a kid. They're great.

[Altair]

Adescribe (I'm Adescribing your hair)

FYI, this one isn't really correct. Adjectives are words that give further detail about what a given noun refers to: e.g. "big," "spherical," "exhaustive," "unimaginable," etc. In the above quote, you use "Adescribing" as a verb, rather than an adjective. Something like: "I am describing your Adjectival hair" would be better as a mnemonic. Also, be aware that the whole concept of parts of speech is actually a great deal trickier than it might appear at first glance. If you push the concepts too far or expect them to translate smoothly between languages, you will wade very quickly into deep linguistic waters.

Looks like Schoolhouse Rock might be helpful.

I am too 爱面子 to publicly admit liking or having seen Schoolhouse Rock in the recent past; however I still occasionally sing parts of "Conjunction Junction" when no one is around to observe.

[Glenn]

I think Conjunction Junction, the pronouns, and verbs are my favorites. "Lolly lolly lolly get your adverbs here" is around there, but not quite on the same level. It's just a bit too... I don't know what, but it seems to be lacking in substance when compared to the others (musically, that is). I've been known to break out into Conjunction Junction at times when people are around. I guess I'm not quite as 愛面子. heheh

[Shi Tong]

Right. I think I'm definately getting it now, those vids are classics.. never seen those before, must be an American only thing.. but very cool! ;)

So back to the original question:

重视教育.. so in this instance, zhongshi is "teaching", right?, which makes zhongshi a verb, right? So is zhongshi then an adverb, which desbribes the verb?

(to ascribe importance (adverb) to teaching (verb)?

zhe4ben3shu1对我来说很重要.. in this instance, we're talking about a book (a book is a noun, right?), so, the 重要 modifies the noun, making it an adjective..

right??

*brain hurts*

So does this mean that 重要 is a adjective which describes nouns (basically), and 重视 is an adverb which describes verbs?

I know I still dont have it all in my head yet, but does this make sense?!

Thanks so much!!

[Jose]

So does this mean that 重要 is a adjective which describes nouns (basically), and 重视 is an adverb which describes verbs?

No, 重视 is a verb. See xiaocai and rivercao's explanations above.

If you get confused by grammatical terms, just try to think by analogy to English. If you want to say that you value education, then you can say 我很重视教育. If you want to say that you think education is important, then you should say 我觉得教育很重要．The first sentence is grammatically equivalent to 我很爱她 (I love her), whereas the second one is equivalent to 我觉得她很可爱 (I think she's lovely).