terminology

[pfctdayelise]

What differences, if any, do you feel there are between the terms 中文 and 汉语？ What steers you towards using one in a particular situation?

There's also 国语，中国话，and 普通话, but I guess they are not as general as the first two (国语 is only used in Taiwan AFAIK, I practically never hear people say 中国话, and 普通话 is more specifically just Mandarin).

Comments

[dabizi]

中文 seems to be used when talking about written Chinese and 汉语 spoken. I never hear 国语 here, but I have heard 中国话 quite a few times (taxi drivers, my future in-laws, etc). Actually after 汉语 I seems to hear 中国话 when talking about spoken Chinese, but it is a distant second.

I had a teacher once tell me that 中文 is the written, and that 汉语 is actually referring to any language that the Han people speak. Thats a bit too broad for me, but I thought you might be interested.

[veggieincoma]

o_O

I use them interchangably. I mostly use 华文 or 中文 though...
华文/华语 are used pretty commonly too, right?

[gaojun]

Are you from Singapore? As far as I know, the terms 华文 and 华语 are used almost exclusively there. I've never heard someone from Mainland China or Taiwan say either of those.

[gaojun]

国语 is what people used to say in China, and they still say in Hong Kong and Taiwan.

普通话 basically means the same thing as 国语, but it's only used in Mainland China.

汉语 is also only used in Mainland China, and it does emphasize the spoken language, but it can refer to the written language as well. I think people in Taiwan don't say 汉语 because it means the language of 汉族, and people from Taiwan just don't identify by their 民族 status the way Mainlanders do. Like, when I told my Taiwanese girlfriend that all Mainlanders have their 民族 status printed on their 身份证, she was horrified.

华语 is used in Singapore, because it means Chinese in the vaguest sense, with no political connotation.

中国话 is frequently used by mainlanders, in my experience. I lived in Sichuan, though, and people told me "你中国话说得好!" in 四川话 all the time.

I almost always just say "中文" because it's commonly used on both sides of the strait, it can refer to written or spoken Chinese, and has less political or ethnic connotation than the others do.

[pfctdayelise]

that's a great guide, thanks so much!

it seems to me that 汉语 is more likely to be used in formal or "official" situations, e.g. 汉语水平考试. would that be a fair assessment?

[gaojun]

In the PRC, yes. My Chinese textbooks there all had 汉语 in the title.

[crispy47]

I've heard 國語 in Macao, too. Here in Taiwan people use it to differentiate Mandarin from Taiwanese, and in HK and Macao it differentiates Mandarin from Cantonese-at least I heard it used that way a lot in Macao.

hello

[anonymous]

说真的，我不认为“中文”和“汉语”在用法或意义上有什么太大的区别，如果说有，也只是“汉语”比“中文”更口语化一些。

“国语”是相对于外语（如英语）而言的。一般是我们中国人之间用的一个词。
“普通话”是相对于方言（dialect)而言的.在中国不同的地区都有各自的方言，方言虽然也是汉语，但在发音和用法上都有很大的不同。
“中国话”我没听过，我可以明白你的意思，但我们中国人从不这样说。

[bluecollarmoxie]

when i think of 中文 i think of chinese as a language that is studied, written/spoken/grammar/all that

and i use/understand 汉语 as more closely connecting with the culture.. like.. the difference between saying "oh you speak chinese really well" and "oh you speak our language really well"