比如說 vs. 譬如說
calkins
October 24, 2010, 08:44 AM posted in General DiscussionThe first few times in Taiwan that I heard (what I thought was) 比如說 bǐrú shuō, I wondered why 比 bǐ sounded like pǐ. I just chalked it up as the Taiwanese accent.
Then I came across it in writing, 譬如說 pìrú shuō. Woohoo, I was hearing a 'p' sound, but I was confused by the use of a different character.
I've compared them on MDBG ... same exact meaning.
I've compared them on nciku ... 比如說 has 6 sentence examples, 譬如說 has 0.
I'm just assuming it's another one of those Taiwan/Mainland differences, but I'm curious if anyone has a better understanding of the difference. Is 譬如說 used at all on the Mainland?
譬 means "metaphor, simile, example".
比 means "to compare, liken; comparison; than".
Changye, I need you to come back! :)
bababardwan
October 24, 2010, 09:21 AMGoogle：
譬如：9,570,000 results
比如：74,600,000 results
.tw:
譬如：360,000 results
比如：550,000 results
..so as you can see, your hunch was along the right lines...in Taiwan 譬如 approaches being as common as 比如 whereas elsewhere, 比如 is by far and away more common [over 8 times so].
giannis
May 03, 2011, 12:41 PMAnd what about "bǐfāngshuō"?
bababardwan
October 24, 2010, 09:13 AMcalkins,
Sorry I can't give you the answer your looking for, but I thought I'd share some thoughts. Looks like they arrive at pretty much the same meaning via a slightly different route.
they both have 如:such as , in common
but
比 is meant to be an associative compound of two persons comparing each other
on the other hand
譬 is pictophonetic with the lower part of the character 言。。speech, and the character meaning to give an example.