「友朋小吃」「還欠款」這些有趣的中文，你「會」讀嗎？ | 老師專欄

同音不同義、同字不同音、同句不同讀——五組例子，帶你看見中文最有趣的一面。Same sound, different meaning; same character, different sounds; the same sentence read two ways — five examples that show Chinese at its most playful.

This article was originally written in Traditional Chinese. The English translation is provided for reference only.

初來香港的時候，小編收到朋友發來的一則訊息，當中提到「宜家」，便立即上網搜索了某家居品牌在香港的全部地址。When I first arrived in Hong Kong, a friend sent me a message with the word 宜家 in it — and I promptly went online to look up every Hong Kong branch of a certain furniture chain.

後來，在朋友玩笑聲中，我才了解到「宜家」是「現在」的意思。然而，中文裏這種一詞多義的有趣語言現象比比皆是。Only later, amid my friends' teasing, did I learn that 宜家 in Cantonese simply means 'now'. And in Chinese, such delightful cases of one word carrying several meanings are everywhere.

有些學生在學習中文時，時常抱怨困難，這也不乏依據。Students learning Chinese often complain that it is difficult — and the complaint is not without grounds.

事實上，當外國人聽不懂一門語言的時候，會用漢語來吐槽它的難度。In fact, when speakers of other languages find something incomprehensible, Chinese is the language they reach for as the byword for difficulty.

漢源小編總結了中文的有趣用法，例如：同音不同義、同義不同字等等，相信會令大家對學習中文有更濃厚的興趣。We have gathered together some of the most entertaining features of Chinese — words that sound alike but mean different things, meanings that can be written with different characters, and more — in the hope that they will make learning Chinese all the more appealing.

同音不同義Same Sound, Different Meaning

「琵琶」和「枇杷」的發音一樣，字形也很相近，然而這兩組詞語意思相差甚遠。琵琶 and 枇杷 are pronounced in exactly the same way (pípá) and even look alike on the page, yet the two words are worlds apart in meaning.

「琵琶」指的是一種下部為瓜子型的盤，有四根弦的樂器。琵琶音域廣闊，演奏技巧繁多，具有豐富的表現力。琵琶, the pipa, is a musical instrument with a melon-seed-shaped lower body and four strings. It has a wide range and a large repertoire of playing techniques, which makes it richly expressive.

「枇杷」是一種生長在溫暖地區的植物果實，它的果實和果核均可入藥。果實色澤金黃，味道酸甜可口。枇杷, the loquat, is the fruit of a plant that grows in warm regions; both the flesh and the stone can be used in medicine. The fruit is golden in colour and pleasantly sweet and tart.

同義不同字Same Meaning, Different Characters

表示去一個地方，可以用不同的字來代替，例如：「上」和「下」。「下廚房」和「上廁所」是約定俗成不能更改，不可以說成「下廁所」和「上廚房」。原因是什麼呢？To say that you are going somewhere, Chinese can use different characters — 上 (up) and 下 (down), for instance. 下廚房 (going down to the kitchen) and 上廁所 (going up to the toilet) are fixed by convention and cannot be swapped: you cannot say 下廁所 or 上廚房. Why should that be?

原來，古代廁所建造在北面偏東的位置，廚房要建造在南面偏東的位置。去南方，我們習慣會用「下」，而去北方時，習慣會用「上」。As it turns out, in ancient buildings the privy was placed to the north-east and the kitchen to the south-east. We are used to saying 'down' when we head south, and 'up' when we head north.

同理，在我們的生活中，我們去深圳往往會用「北上深圳」，而皇帝去江南遊覽則用「下江南」。By the same logic, in everyday speech we say 北上深圳 (going up north to Shenzhen), while an emperor touring the lower Yangtze was said to 下江南 (go down to Jiangnan).

同字不同音Same Character, Different Sounds

在河北省秦皇島市山海關的孟姜女廟，有這樣一副對聯，對聯內容是：海水朝朝朝朝朝朝朝落，浮雲長長長長長長長消。這副對聯利用了多音字以及假借的手法，構思精巧，使得對聯有不同的說法。At the Temple of Lady Meng Jiang, at Shanhaiguan in Qinhuangdao, Hebei province, there hangs a famous couplet: 海水朝朝朝朝朝朝朝落，浮雲長長長長長長長消. Ingeniously built on characters with more than one reading and on phonetic loans, it can be read in several different ways.

「朝」有「zhāo」和「cháo」兩種讀音，「zhāo」音是早上的意思，「cháo」音則為通假字，同「潮」字。朝 has two readings, zhāo and cháo. Read zhāo it means 'morning'; read cháo it stands as a loan character for 潮, 'tide'.

「長」有「cháng」和「zhǎng」的讀音，「zhǎng」音是生長的意思，可用作「漲」字，「cháng」音則為通假字，同「常」字。長 has the readings cháng and zhǎng. Read zhǎng it means 'to grow', and can stand for 漲, 'to rise'; read cháng it is a loan character for 常, 'constantly'.

所以，這樣排列組合下，這副對聯就有了不同種的解釋。例如：Arranged in different combinations, then, the couplet yields quite different readings. For example:

1、海水朝（潮），朝朝朝（潮），朝朝（潮）朝落；浮雲長（漲），長長（常常）長（漲），長（常）長（漲）長（常）消。1. 海水朝（潮），朝朝朝（潮），朝朝（潮）朝落；浮雲長（漲），長長（常常）長（漲），長（常）長（漲）長（常）消 — 'The sea tides; morning after morning it tides; each morning's tide falls with the morning. The floating clouds rise; ever and ever they rise; ever rising, they ever disperse.'

2、海水朝朝朝（潮），朝朝（潮）朝朝落；浮雲長長（常常）長（漲），長（常）長（漲）長長（常常）消。2. 海水朝朝朝（潮），朝朝（潮）朝朝落；浮雲長長（常常）長（漲），長（常）長（漲）長長（常常）消 — 'Morning after morning the sea tides; the morning tide falls morning after morning. Constantly the floating clouds rise; ever rising, they constantly disperse.'

同句不同讀Same Sentence, Different Directions

最初，漢字並不是一律從左向右讀的習慣。例如：剛剛學會認字的學生看到「友朋小吃」四個字，從不同方向閱讀，會有不同意思。Chinese characters were not always read from left to right. A child who has only just learned to recognise characters, for instance, will find that the four characters 友朋小吃 mean quite different things depending on which way they are read.

從左向右，「友朋小吃」是一家賣小吃的店鋪，而從右向左，「吃小朋友」則是令學生心頭一震的句子。時至今日，在香港仍然能看到一些出版物是由上向下，由右向左的閱讀形式。Read from left to right, 友朋小吃 is 'Friends' Snacks', the name of a snack shop; read from right to left it becomes 吃小朋友, 'eats little children' — a sentence guaranteed to give a young reader a fright. Even today, some publications in Hong Kong are still set to be read from top to bottom and from right to left.

同句不同義Same Sentence, Different Meanings

初讀下面句子，你能理解句子的真正意義嗎？On a first reading, can you tell what the following sentences really mean?

1、她還欠款一千元。1. 她還欠款一千元。 (literally: she hái / huán a debt of one thousand dollars)

2、這位老人看不起醫生。2. 這位老人看不起醫生。 (literally: this elderly man 看不起 the doctor)

3、做不完功課，你等着。3. 做不完功課，你等着。 ('If the homework isn't finished, you wait.')

第1句中「還」字可理解為「還錢」和「還是」，所以句子既可以理解為她還是欠別人錢，又可以理解為她還了欠下的錢。In the first sentence, 還 can be read as huán, 'to repay', or as hái, 'still'. The sentence therefore means either that she still owes someone a thousand dollars, or that she has paid the thousand dollars back.

第2句中「看不起」引起了歧義，句子不但可以理解為老人生活困苦，沒錢看病，而且還可以理解為看不上這位醫生。In the second, 看不起 is ambiguous: the sentence can mean that the old man's life is hard and he cannot afford to see a doctor, or that he looks down on this particular doctor.

第3句中的「你等着」，不僅可以理解為讓別人等自己做完功課，還可以理解為是一種強硬語氣的威脅或警告。In the third, 你等着 can mean 'wait while I finish my homework', but it can equally be a sharp threat or warning — 'you just wait'.

這種一句多義的句子，在中文學習過程中不勝枚舉。為了避免歧義，我們要結合特定語境去了解。Sentences with more than one possible meaning are beyond counting in Chinese. To avoid ambiguity, we have to read them within their particular context.

小結In Summary

中文是最方正的文字，漢語是最優美的語言。Chinese characters are the most upright and square of scripts, and Chinese the most graceful of languages.

現在，你還認為中文難學嗎？只要學習方法到位，並且在一定學習環境中不斷進步，相信大家一定會熟練掌握這世界上最難學的語言。So — do you still think Chinese is hard to learn? With the right learning methods, and steady progress in the right environment, we are confident that anyone can come to master what is said to be the most difficult language in the world.

那麼，如何學好中文呢？小編列舉以下幾點秘訣。How, then, does one learn Chinese well? Here are a few secrets.

1、激發學習的興趣；2、字詞句深入淺出；3、沉浸式的學與練。1. Spark a genuine interest in learning. 2. Work through characters, words and sentences, making the difficult simple. 3. Learn and practise by immersion.