Difference between Gudan vs Jimo

[wilhal_18]

Hi guys,

I need your help here. What is actually the difference of gudan vs jimo?? they both mean lonely in dictionary. I am sure there should be some difference between them.

can anyone help me, please. I am just a beginner.

thanks in advance for all the help.

[Don_Horhe]

I've always thought of 寂寞 as more subjective - you could be surrounded by tons of people you know and still feel lonely, whereas 孤单 is loneliness and seclusion, laying emphasis on the latter. I'm not a native speaker though, so I might be wrong.

[williamwu]

孤单means both alone,while 寂寞means lonely,usually used to describe one's inside mood.

[fanglu]

Don't forget 孤独, which have always thought of as being the same as 寂寞. Although googling tells me that 孤独 is more long term and 寂寞 more short term.

[Areckx]

Hey I remember hearing gudu in a song(johny chou??? I don't remembet his name, but his surname has 風 in it

now I know what it means!!! makes sense in love songs

[wilhal_18]

hi everyone, i am still confused. thank you for your reply though.

@ william: you said that JIMO is usually from inside, then what about GUDAN?? and besides what do you mean by from inside?

i am seriously confused. can you please give me more detailed explanation?

[skylee]

I would think that gudan means the physical and mental state of being alone, whereas jimo focuses more on the mental state of loneliness.

[Areckx]

There are a lot of vocabulary in Chinese where you use different words for different aspects of an idea.

For example, there are several words that all translate to the same word, but you would use one for if you're describing a building, describing something in your emotions, something that's alive... I don't have specific examples but the idea is to not think about it so much.

If you always go around saying in your head "did I use the right word? What should I use!!!?" then you're going to get stuck in a sea of synonyms. Just say and write what feels right to you, and people will point out to you the subtlties.

Welcome to East-Asian languages!

[Danny2312]

Gudan 孤单 isn't exactly the same as jimo 寂寞，but the difference between them isn't big either.

孤 in 孤单 suggests 'one', which in this case means lonely. It means you're all alone and you have no company and therefore you feel lonely, and this word is not necessary a negative word.

寂寞 (jimo), however, is slightly different. If you are 寂寞, it means you have no company and you feel sad that you're alone, you somehow feel that your life is meaningless or surreal or dull. It doesn't necessary mean you're all alone. You can be surrounded by a group of people and still feel 寂寞。

[wilhal_18]

@danny 2312,

Thank you so much for your explanation. that kinds of explain the difference between 2 of them. seriously, this is the best explanation so far.

thank you again. i truly appreciate it. so basically , JIMO is deeper and feels more emotional than gudan. correct?

[wilhal_18]

@ARECKX

I dont really agree with your suggestion. Yes, there are a lot of synonyms in language such as chinese. But we encounter the same issue with english. From my experience learning language, there are lot of words that are not exactly synonyms.

do we have to know them? of course. If you said that we shouldnt worry about using the correct word or not, i dont think this is good idea at all. i think we should try to use the language correctly. yes, i am not perfect but i am trying to use the language as good as i can.

[Areckx]

@wilhal_18

I'm glad we have a place like this forums so we can learn these things from different perspectives. Thanks for the response.

I've always agreed with any learning method. If I have offended anyone here in any way, feel free to point it out. I can take criticism, because I'm not focused on looking smart but rather actually learning the language. It's good to hear feedback from you wilhal

[Danny2312]

@wilhal_18

Yes. 'Jimo' is a more 'emotional' term than 'gudan'.

[wilhal_18]

@areckx

Thank you for your comment. No, you did not offend me or anybody here and I truly respect your opinion.

I agree that at the beginning when one start to learn foreign language, its wise not to worry too much about this and that since at the beginning stage, you have a lot more important things than that. its like "pronounciation", is it important to speak like native speaker? at the beginning, i truly agree that its not necessary. but i think as we progress, it shouldnt be ignored.

a lot of factors have to be taken into account as well. like some people just want to learn basic conversation. Me personally, though my chinese is really bad at this point, but i do hope one day, i can be fluent and speak like chinese (hopefully, this is too hard for me at this point), i am not even close. and i believe most people here are better than me.

[Areckx]

It all starts with finding music in the language that you like. It helps your brain grab a hold of it.