Clock 表

[Flickserve]

Can 表 be used as clock?

 

It comes from a glossika sentence 这支表走吗？Does the clock work？

[889]

I believe so, and a quick Google search on 这支表 shows plenty of uses.

[fabiothebest]

Clock can be 表，钟 or 时钟 (the last 2 maybe more specific). Wristwatch is usually called 手表 but in colloquial Chinese can also be called simply 表, so a sentence like "这只表走吗? "  could mean both "does this clock work?" or "does this watch work?". Correct me if I'm wrong.

[889]

As always, context is king but I'd usually take 这支表 to refer to a watch.

[Tomsima]

not sure of the wording of your question, if relevant, the character 表 and 錶 are interchangeable for the above meaning (in traditional)

[dwq]

鐘 for stationary clocks and 錶 for wristwatches and pocket watches is what I would use.  While it might be possible in some way to have 錶 meaning clocks, I don't think it is common.  In fact all the images for 这支表 in a Google image search are wristwatches.

[Flickserve]

I am quite used to hearing 表 as an abbreviation of 手表 but never for clock.

 

My HK colleague confirmed in Cantonese, they do not use 表 for a clock.

 

So from what you guys say, probably the usage is more mainland style mandarin where 表 can refer to both a clock or a watch (depending on context), but it seems to be less frequently used to refer to clock even on the mainland. 

[roddy]

I’d be surprised to see 表 used alone to mean clock and would see that sentence as a word choice error in one direction or the other. 

[fabiothebest]

Sometimes Glossika sentences are a bit odd..they want to sound very spoken/colloquial and risk being less standard. Anyway I used Glossika too. I don't use it anymore, but it doesn't hurt. Sentences are many and very random..it's especially good for acquiring some sentence patterns, reuse part of a sentence to make your own..they use the same list of sentences as a base and translate them in all the languages..sometimes some sentences may not sound 100% natural..