儿 meaning?

[cecilia532]

"I see 儿 attached to the end of a lot of words. Is this as a diminutive term?

It (儿) seems to mean 'child', but then so does 小孩儿 and apparently so does 小孩。

Are these all related to the age of the child being referred to? 儿 for a baby, 小孩儿 for a 'toddler' and 小孩 for older children?"

[Peter2010]

Are these all related to the age of the child being referred to? 儿 for a baby, 小孩儿 for a 'toddler' and 小孩 for older children?"

I'm afraid not. 小孩儿=小孩. Take a look at this please.

[SherryChen]

儿 doesn't mean the baby. when you see the 小孩儿 maybe kind of dialect.

usually we say 小孩. their meanings are totally same.

i guess that 儿 might be kind of cute way to describe something

[jbradfor]

兒(儿) has two meanings: "child/son", and to represent the final "r" sound in some (mainly northern) dialects. The latter is more common.

Examples of the former are 兒童, 女兒, 幼兒, 小兒科. In these cases, 儿 is pronounced as ér​, and is a separate syllable.

In general, for the latter usage, the use of 兒 does not change the meaning, and is only a dialect pronunciation. There are a couple words, but very few, in which the use of 兒 does change the meaning or reduce ambiguity. I believe there are some words in standard Mandarin that do use 兒 in this way, but I can never remember which they are.

EDIT: opps, just noticed in post #2 the link to the wikipedia page. That is a much better description of the second usage than I did.....

[vivianomylife2011]

quote: 【兒(儿) has two meanings: "child/son", and to represent the final "r" sound in some (mainly northern) dialects. The latter is more common.】

Eg：

小孩儿

一会儿

一下儿

好玩儿

唱歌儿

课本儿

……

it doesn't change the meaning. It's coming from Beijing dialect.

[renzhe]

the use of 兒 does not change the meaning

it doesn't change the meaning

We've discussed this in some other thread (there have been many over the years), and it actually often affects the meaning. The change is often subtle, though. For example, it is often used as a sign of affection, after names.

It can disambiguate between verb/noun pairs, such as 画 / 画儿 . 画 can mean either "drawing" or "to draw". 画儿 can only mean "drawing". Similarly, 花儿 can only mean "flower", it cannot mean "to spend", while 花 can mean both.

One example where the meaning is changed is 明儿, "tomorrow". 明 alone can't be used like that, you need to say 明天 or 明日.

So it's true that it usually doesn't flat out change the meaning (completely), but it's more than just an accent.

[jbradfor]

I assume you mean this thread?

[You also quoted me out of context. But I'll forgive you...]

[renzhe]

You're right. I have wronged you

[Demonic_Duck]

Is it better to learn the pronunciations with or without 兒/儿?

[Daan]

Depends. In the north, it'd be a good idea, though you should be careful not to start slapping an 儿 on every syllable. In the south, it's not used all that often, and while you'll mostly still be understood if you use 儿s, sometimes it can trip locals up.

[renzhe]

IMHO, if in doubt, it's always best to stick to the standard.

You can add the local touch later, once you're fluent.