Differences? intense vs passionate

[semantic nuance]

Hi,

A friend asked a question which I could not tell their semantic nuances from each other. I'd like to ask for help here. What's the difference between 'intense' and 'passionate'? Could you please also give examples to juxtapose these two words in a sentence?

Thanks in advance!

[skylee]

This is such a good exam question.

[semantic nuance]

This is such a good exam question.

Ah! indeed! But it's not from a test. Actually, its' from J.M. Coetzee's Disgrace. There's a sentence--In the field of sex his temperament, though intense, has never been passionate.

[fanglu]

Intense means strong and can be used to describe a broader range of things (eg including sensory perceptions and feelings) than passionate. Passionate means either emotional or having strong feelings.

Examples:

The flower had an intensely sweet aroma.

A passionate man, he angered easily. / He was a passionate republican.

In your sentence my reading of it would be that he engaged in sex actively, but without much emotion.

[anonymoose]

Also, intense is a neutral word, and can describe negative things as well as positive, such as an "intense storm" or an "intense interrogation".

Passionate, on the other hand, describes a person's interest and enthusiasm, and thus is usually only used in a positive sense.

Personally, I don't see why there should be any confusion between these two words. To me, they seem to be entirely different things.

[liuzhou]

Intense pain - Intense feelings

Passionate pain - Passionate feelings

[semantic nuance]

Thank you all for your inputs. So what would you attempt to translate 'intense' and 'passionate' respectively in Chinese?

[anonymoose]

Probably, like most words, the best translation would depend on the specific context, but maybe something like 剧烈 for intense, and 热情 for passionate.

[semantic nuance]

謝謝! anonymoose!

[tooironic]

Consider also 激情 for passionate.