Difference between 真 and 很

[Photons]

Can these two characters be used interchangeably?

[pretendingchinese]

you are really smart （你真聪明）, you are very smart（你很聪明）, any difference？ 

[Nicolesun]

“真” is an adjective and also is an adverb, "很“ is an adverb word. when they are used as adverb to modfiy sth, mostly,they could be used interchangeably.For instance: 这棵树真高，the "真“here means really,it can be replaced by "很”.

when"真“as an adjective it means true/real,it can not be interchanged. For instance: 这条新闻是真的.the "真” here means real.

If there is anything I did not explain clearly , pls contact me.

[陳德聰]

No.

[Demonic_Duck]

When used as adverbs, there's a difference in degree, too. “很” doesn't really correspond to English “very” - in most circumstances it doesn't really add any intensity to the following adjective at all (unless it's emphasised in speech).

 

“真” is indeed like “real” and “really”, and is largely similar to those English words in meaning, intensity and usage.

 

“真好” - really good

“天气真不错” - the weather's really nice

“我真讨厌这种人” - I really can't stand this kind of person.

[skylee]

“很” doesn't really correspond to English “very” - in most circumstances it doesn't really add any intensity to the following adjective at all (unless it's emphasised in speech).

I am not sure this is always true. But what do I know.

[Demonic_Duck]

It's not always true, hence the caveat “in most circumstances”.

 

The main circumstances I can think of where 很 definitely does add intensity are verbs (answering “你喜欢吗？” with “我很喜欢” instead of “我喜欢”), or when it's used in the structure “…得很”. Although this list is almost certainly not exhaustive.

[maomao2014]

To Demonic_Duck

 

What you explained is too complicated. I agree with what Nicolesun said.

 

One thing I need to point out is when "I" is subject, we don't normally use 真,but use 很,for example 我很好，but do not say 我真好

[Demonic_Duck]

In your example though, “我很好” doesn't really mean “I'm very good”, it just means “I'm good” (well, technically “I'm fine”, although “I'm good” is widely accepted colloquial usage).

 

If you want to express you're very good, you'd use something else: “非常好”; “好极了”; “好得不能再好” etc.

 

I feel (could be wrong) that the reason you wouldn't use “真好” is because it would sound a bit self-satisfied, like you were saying you were a really good person, not just that your circumstances and mood were good.

[PBolchover]

I remember reading somewhere that "很" means "very" when followed by a 2-syllable word.  However, if following by a single-syllable word, it doesn't have strong meaning, as is used to get the right rhythm of the words.  For a single-syllable word, use "非常“ to mean "very".

[maomao2014]

Never heard of that. You can say 非常好 or 很好,  非常漂亮 or 很漂亮

If you just want to say good, you can say 还行，可以，不错，you don't need to use 好

[Demonic_Duck]

To my mind:

 

还行/可以 = just OK

不错 = pretty good.

 

@maomao2014: are you saying that 很好 is exactly as good as 非常好? O_o

[hedwards]

I'm not sure how much of it is the language and how much of it is the culture. It seems like whenever I've come across 很 as in 很好, it's never meant very well, it's meant more or less well. I've always assumed that it's a form of inflation so that if you're just OK, that's bad, but if you're very good that's OK.

[maomao2014]

@Demonic_Duck  I think 非常好is better than 很好. You can say 很好 very good,  非常好reamarkable

[maomao2014]

sorry remarkable

[陳德聰]

It always amuses me when people try to simplify things with the "more or less" approach. If something is different, it's different. Let's not just say that they're the same just because that's easier.

 

If you went around replacing every 很 with 真 you would sound extremely enthusiastic. They are not interchangeable, and it would be misleading to say that they are. They can both be used as adverbs but that doesn't make them "interchangeable".

 

还好 < 蛮好/挺好 < 很好 < 真好 < 非常好 < 太好了

Just because they all fulfill the same grammatical role doesn't mean they're interchangeable. They all give varying degrees to the following adjective.

[Guest realmayo]

is 蛮好 really weaker than 很好?

Hmm, dictionaries say it is.

I thought it was a southern alternative to 很.

Maybe it's weaker when used by notherners, but just = 很 when used by southerners??

[renzhe]

Maybe I'm overanalysing, but AFAIK, 很 is an adverb of degree, while 真 states that something is genuine. 很好 means very good, on a continuum of "goodness", from a little bit good to insanely good. You are measuring how much goodness there is. 真好, on the other hand, means that something is truly good, genuinely good, as opposed to superficially good or even bad.

When used as intensifiers, it often comes down to the same thing, and with many adjectives this is a philosophical debate anyway. But they can't be used interchangeably in general because they are different.

[陳德聰]

Yes it means "truly good, genuinely good" etc. on the face of the characters, but in practice how often do you see it used to contrast with "superficially good or even bad"?

 

In practice, it modifies the degree of the adjective. Theoretically, you could construct a situation where saying 真好 is trying to convince the other person that you really are good rather than bad, but you'd have to use extra effort to get away from the primary meaning.

[hedwards]

@陳德聰,

 

That's an OK approach to take if you don't mind learning the language at such a slow pace that you're talking about years to do a basic conversation. What's more, I'm guessing that most native speakers would fail miserably to use most of the words they use if they had to know and use the exact correct definition every time.

 

When people say close enough, that's not permission to never learn the difference, it's a reflection of the diminishing returns that you'll achieve by learning the precise difference between two very similar words. Color words are especially prone to that, do most people really need to know the difference between orange and amber? Or how about eggplant and purple? And unless you're a painter, you can probably refer to both titanium white and zinc white as white, even though they are different colors that can be easily distinguished from each other by people that oil paint.