温暖 or 暖和?

avichapman
June 23, 2014, 03:42 AM posted in I Have a Question

Hello all,

This is my inaugural question on ChinesePod. And here it is...

Does anyone know the difference between 温暖 and 暖和? I was taught 暖和 in the context of weather. Does 温暖 get used in a different circumstance? Or are they interchangeable?

谢谢你们

Profile picture
DavidXuzhou
June 23, 2014, 05:33 AM

Hi avichapman,

Good question.

'暖和/ nuan3 huo' is from Northern dialects, sounds more colloquial than '温暖/ wen1 nuan3'. Both mean warm and can be used to describe weather.

Please tune in this week's QingWen show. We will talk about this two words and plus 1 similar word, and some sample sentences.

BTW, keep your questions coming, we'd love to help. I think it might help other learners, too. Thanks!

Profile picture
veronique21

I totaly agree with you, David, questions are always very useful for everyone.

Profile picture
yaotiantian
June 29, 2014, 12:54 AM

Hello avichapman,

暖和usually means the weather is neither hot nor cold,and 温暖sometimes has the same meaning as 暖和warm, but the difference is that 温暖 can also be used when you receive others' help.

For example, 你的帮助让我在异国他乡感受到了温暖。Your help keeps me warm when I'm in a foreign land.

Hope I have done some help.

Profile picture
shannon850641781
July 29, 2014, 04:58 AM

暖和和温暖都可以用来形容天气,而且我们口语中暖和比较常用,比如“哎呀,屋子里可真暖和啊”,我们很少说“屋子里可真温暖”。如果你要形容东西什么的就用温暖,比如“你的手好温暖”,"这个暖宝宝真温暖啊“。