Difference between 碾 and 軋? ("to run over")

[tooironic]

他被碾過了。He was run over.

他被軋了。He was run over.

What is the difference between 碾 (nian3) and 軋 (ya4)? Is it true that the former refers to running over someone or something more than once, while the latter doesn't? Or do they mean exactly the same thing?

Thanks.

[Tamu]

Timely topic given the Beijing expat motorcycle incident ;)

 

I'm curious about 軋. I asked a few people today, and no one has heard of it. It's in the dictionary for sure, but native speakers swear to me it's not used. And googling "他被軋了" gets only 5 hits (the first of which is this post haha).

 

Fwiw, people thought it must be 压. Not used often, but in this sense it could have the meaning of to be crushed to death, to be smacked (from above): 他被卡车压死了。 That usage gets a fair number of Google hits, not huge but some.

 

碾 was seen as definitely more commonly used with the sense of "to run over". No one had the feeling that it means to run over more than once, though.

 

Everyone I asked told me they thought 撞 would be the most commonly used.

 

It's a fun vocab lesson . What prompted your question?

[Demonic_Duck]

Well, I've definitely heard 她被压/轧死了 used before (in a shop, there was a tiny kitten running about, and the 老太太 running the store told me 可怜的小猫的妈妈被车压死了). However, every time since this I've tried to use it, I've been told I'm using it wrong. I think it's because it can only be used in the very specific situation where the person or animal is literally run over, i.e. crushed to death under the vehicle's wheels (getting violently thrown up in the air over the car's bonnet wouldn't count). Hence, it's mainly used for smaller animals.

[tooironic]

Thank you Tamu and Demonic_Duck for your contributions. There are 283,000 results for "被軋了" and 1,320,000 results for "被軋" so I wouldn't give up on 軋 just yet. And my friends had heard about it, but maybe it's an education thing. I was hoping a native speaker or two on this forum could give their input.

 

To clarify, 壓 and 撞 ≠ "run over" - they mean "crush" and "run into/collide" respectively.

[flowertea]

There is a little different, not too much.

 

Both of 碾and 轧 mean run over , but 碾 may sound like more horrible, because it emphasizes 面(flat surface), even sometimes it means to run over a few times again and again. 轧emphasizes点,线(point, line).

Eg:  

①轧线---over take a white or yellow line

②被车碾了--- when you want to describe the whole process that a car runs over something or a person or a part of someone’s body totally, especially a driver doesn’t realize he hits that object or person and the car runs it or him over again such as 倒车的时候 (back a car), or something or someone is squeezed by big wheels or some other equipment.

③So another example of 碾， if someone is closing a drawer like A but…

A: 唉呦！

B: 怎么了？

A: 我的手指头关抽屉的时候被碾了！”

B：真糟糕。

 

So I think 碾 is describing a scaring process. 轧 is to speak about a quick action to tell people what happened. And you will find people often use the two Chinese characters together 碾轧 when you read and hear the traffic news，it mostly emphasizes 碾。

[tooironic]

Very useful, thanks flowertea!