What is the difference between jian4 and kan4

[piano0011]

Wo qu jian wo de peng you 

and

wo qu kan wo de peng you

 

Do they both mean the same thing as to meet? or does jian4 mean to meet whereas kan4 = to see?

[becky82]

On 1/15/2024 at 9:06 AM, piano0011 said:

Wo qu jian wo de peng you 

and

wo qu kan wo de peng you

 

Here's the short version:  Used as standalone verbs in this context, 看 (kàn) and 见 (jiàn) both refer to intentionally meeting/seeing/visiting someone; usually it's a friend or relative.  The difference is that 看 (kàn) = "to visit" usually implies you are going to their location while 见 (jiàn) = "to meet" is unspecific.  However, since the sentences both contain 去 (qù) = "to go", they mean the same thing.

 

Both 见 (jiàn) and 看 (kàn) have multiple distinct usages, and language is often used quite flexibly.  According to my dictionary, here 看 is short for 看望 (kànwàng) = "to visit", and 见 means 碰面 (pèngmiàn) = "to meet", but in other contexts both 看 (kàn) and 见 (jiàn) have many other meanings.

[piano0011]

thanks for the detailed explanation and can you provide more examples on my other thread about zui4duo1 because I like your examples but still confused about it

[honglam]

I think you'd better not to try to correspond each chinese character/word to a single english word, since they are completely different languages.

You can say that both 看 and 见 means "meet" here, but they is slight difference. I'd say that if you say that 我去看他, it is more likely to be such a situation: he stays and home/stays in bed in the hospital, and you approach him to visit him. Yet if you say 我去见他, it can be that you have made a appointment with him and you two are approaching each other for the meeting. It is possible that 我去见他 means the same as 我去看他(but not the other way around), but as a native speaker i'd like to say that i'll never have the two expressions messed up since the sense behind them are somehow different for me.

Meanwhile, 见 can be used in the compounds like 听见, 看见. The difference is just like what you'll say in English, that is, "I listened to him speaking, but I didn't hear anything.我听他说话了，但我什么都没听见" or "I look at the paint, but I didn't see anything.我看这幅画了，但我什么都没看见". 见 is added here to mean that you not only used your sensation but also receive some information by looking/listening, etc.

[piano0011]

Thanks for the explanation everyone! think i understand the difference and yes.... jian4 can mean appointment as in yu4jian4 correct? @honglam

[honglam]

On 1/15/2024 at 1:28 PM, piano0011 said:

jian4 can mean appointment as in yu4jian4 correct?

I'd say 遇见 means rather "meet without appointment before“ to me. Using barely 见 may have a sense of appointment instead. 

[piano0011]

I think the meaning of yu4jian4 means date? as in dating?

[Lu]

@piano0011 Have you tried using the various dictionaries yet? Both Pleco and Youdao will give you several definitions and a number of example sentences. Very useful resources.

[piano0011]

@lulu according to my plecebo... can i say: yi1 wo3 zhi1 jian14 = this is my opinion but why structure it this way and not: wo zhi yi jian?

[honglam]

On 1/15/2024 at 7:02 PM, piano0011 said:

yi1 wo3 zhi1 jian14 = this is my opinion but why structure it this way and not: wo zhi yi jian?

Translated word by word, 依我之见 means “leaning on” “I” “'s” "opinion", which means "according to my opinion". Here the grammatical structure is just like the one of English, “我之见” is the object of the verb 依. We won't say "my according to opinion" in English either.

[honglam]

On 1/15/2024 at 4:19 PM, piano0011 said:

I think the meaning of yu4jian4 means date? as in dating?

I'm not sure what the dictionary has explained about this word, but for me I won't use 遇见 or 遇到 when I'm expressing "I had a date with xxx". 

Let us suppose that I did have a appointment with Jack. If someone ask me "你遇见Jack了吗？Have you met Jack?", I will answer "我遇见他了。I have met him." I think using 遇见 in such circumstance is okay. But I won't say 我遇见Jack了 when I want to tell the others the very information that "I met Jack because of an appointment."

I'd rather say that 遇见 don't really contains a sense of "appointment" literally, or in other words, it only emphasizes the truth that "you met", yet doesn't mind why you met, whether there was an appointment or not. I'll use "我和他约定见面" "我和他有个会要开(Literally "I and he have a meeting to be hold" or similar)" to emphasize the appointment.

I don't really know how to put my explanation even easier since it's just the sensation of a native speaker. I hope I've clarified it.

[piano0011]

I think the word is yue1hui4 to mean date? 

 

So I must say yi1 wo3 zhi1 jian4 = according to my opinion.. this is correct?

 

Can i say someting like?

 

1) yi wo zhi jian, wo bu xihuan he kafei= according to my opinion, I don't like drinking coffee..

2) yi wo zhi jian, wo xihuan mai na jian yi fu = according to my opinion, I like buying that clothes

[honglam]

On 1/16/2024 at 9:09 AM, piano0011 said:

I think the word is yue1hui4 to mean date? 

 

So I must say yi1 wo3 zhi1 jian4 = according to my opinion.. this is correct?

 

Can i say someting like?

 

1) yi wo zhi jian, wo bu xihuan he kafei= according to my opinion, I don't like drinking coffee..

2) yi wo zhi jian, wo xihuan mai na jian yi fu = according to my opinion, I like buying that clothes

约会 means date. That's okay. Actually it is used as "the date between the beloved" in oral Chinese most of the time now. But it's okay if you used this word to describe common date between no-lovers, that's a rather formal expression.

As to the two sentences of 依我之见, grammatically they are acceptable. But in Chinese we seldom use this expression in such context. I'd like to say that this expression is more likely to be used in arguments, when you really want to state your point of view on a certain topic. e.g. when you are commenting a plan of activity your colleague have prepared, you can say "依我之见，这个活动计划根本行不通 In my opinion, this plan of activity won't work at all". Things like whether you like coffee or not, or which clothes you prefer, tend to be more "emotional" but not act like a point of view.

Besides, "依我看" ”依我之见“ “以我看来” or similar expressions are slightly Classical-Chinese-styled, and have a sense of formality. Usually we won't use such expression in a casual context.

[piano0011]

I guess i should say something like....

 

yi wo zhi jian, kafei xiang ni de shenti bu hao.... = in my opinion, coffee is bad for your health?

[honglam]

On 1/16/2024 at 3:06 PM, piano0011 said:

I guess i should say something like....

 

yi wo zhi jian, kafei xiang ni de shenti bu hao.... = in my opinion, coffee is bad for your health?

Exactly. The only problem here is 向. 咖啡对你的身体不好 is correct. 向 shows the direction(destination) as a preposition.