Pronuniciation of 播种

[Scoobyqueen]

This word has two different pronunications and they mean the same thing according to the dictionary.

[roddy]

Isn't it just a verb noun difference?

[Scoobyqueen]

When used as a verb the difference is as stated (according to my source). That is the way I needed to use it.

[roddy]

Argh, lost a post while messing around flicking back and forth between IMEs. Forgive the tone numbers and lack of Chinese.

zhong3 is the noun. So bo1zhong3 is a verb-object, like chi1fan4

zhong4 is the verb. Bo1zhong4 is a verb, and this being Chinese is no doubt used as a noun and adjective and when necessary any other part of speech.

Anyone else want to weight in? Damned if I'd want to tell you when to use which

I'm not convinced by your friend's explanation. If something's bigger than a seed you can't 播 it, you'd have to 栽.

[Scoobyqueen]

It is possible that she is wrong.She did not immediately know. I am hoping to verify that. Thanks for helping to shed light on it.

[li3wei1]

When talking about strawberries, baidu uses 种植 and 栽种but not 播种.

However, here

I found this: 盆栽草莓的播种育苗需要用保水性能良好的培养土（如悬吊盆花的栽培用土）

[Scoobyqueen]

In this video is he

[Scoobyqueen]

I think you can still use 播种

[alanalian]

种（third tone） means seed and 种（fourth tone）means seeding. And ‘播’ does not affect the pronunciations of ‘种’

I know your why your Chinese friend didn't know the pronunciations of '播种（4th tone）‘. Chinese people seldom use 播种（4th tone）but directly '种（4th tone）’ instead.

Eg：你在种（4th）草莓？我在种（4th）菜。If you use 播种 here， it sounds weird for most Chinese people.