Similar sounding phrases that make a big difference

[xuechengfeng]

I just encountered this in class the other day. Can you think of any others?

那个人在公园里看书。

那个人在公园里砍树。

Do you just have to have really good ears?

[Yuchi]

I don't know, there seems to be a pretty distinguishable tone change when comparing the two.

[roddy]

You're doing ok, I misread it and was about to tell you that 吹 and 看 are completely different

[skylee]

But 看 (kan4) and 砍 (kan3) are so very different ...

書 (shu1) and 樹 (shu4) are also different, but I tend to mix up the 1st and 4th tones ...

[xuechengfeng]

They are distinguishable when said slowly, but often I hear motormouths speaking a mile a minute, and to the foreigner, it's hard to catch the tones.

[kudra]

Just curious, are these motormouths native Mandarin speakers, classmates, ...?

[Lu]

A friend of mine had borrowed NT3000 from me, and after buying what he wanted to buy went to a ATM and said '我給你ling3钱'. I thought 零钱, what ling2qian2, I'd rather have you give me back all my 3000 dollar now. Turns out ling3qian2 is the same as qu3qian2.

[confucius]

It can get kind of funny when trying to tell waiters or hostesses why restaurant restrooms in China are "inconvenient" (bu fangbian) .

[amego]

Hmmm cant think of one now, but i have this sentence that has double meaning

很难吃 can mean "not tasty" or "difficult to eat", but 99% of the time its used for the former, haha the problem comes when u need to say for the second meaning, I ALWAYS have to clarify, by using English, or Hokkien (in Hokkien they are "坏吃" and "工苦吃" respectively ), or saying "吃很辛苦/吃很麻烦".