Through Thick ad Thin || 厚 and 薄
Understanding the Antonyms 厚 and 薄 in Chinese
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One notable pair of higher level antonyms in Chinese is the pair 厚 and 薄. Both of these characters are used in quite a few words and are very useful; let's learn about them!
TLDR
厚 means “thick” and has a positive connotation
薄 means “thin” and has a negative connotation
Both characters can form words with other characters and can be used with both physical and non-physical things
You can even use the characters in the same words and expressions!
厚
The character 厚 has several meanings in Chinese, but the most common one is "thick" or "dense". It can be used to describe physical objects, such as a thick book or a dense forest, as well as non-physical things, like a thick accent or a dense atmosphere.
The character‘s meaning comes from the radical “厂”. This radical means “cliff”, and so the character’s original meaning was the depth of a mountain ⛰️
厚’s jump to its current meaning makes sense, doesn’t it, considering that mountains are pretty thick, depth-wise?
厚 can be used by itself or with other characters to form larger words. 厚 has a positive connotation, and it’s usually used in words that have positive meanings associated with them ➕
Here are some examples of words with 厚:
雄厚 - ample, rich, abundant
深厚 - deep, profound
厚道 - virtuous, honest and kind
Here are some example sentences:
这本书很厚，一共有五百多页！
This book is very thick, in total it has over 500 pages!
我把佛经念完以后，有一个很深厚的感受。
After I finished reciting the Buddhist scripture, I had a very deep, profound feeling.
薄
薄 is usually pronounced as “bo2”. However, in colloquial speech some people may use the pronunciation “bao2”.
Quite contrary to 厚, the character 薄 is often used to mean "thin" or "light". Like 厚, 薄 can be used to describe both physical and non-physical things.
With regards to physical things, you can use 薄 to describe such things as thin hair or a thin sheet of paper, while with regards to non-physical things, you can use 薄 to describe weak/poor morals, conduct, sensations, etc.
This leads me to my next point: unlike 厚, 薄 has a negative — not a positive — connotation. When used by itself or with other characters in larger words, it’s often associated with negativity ➖
Here are some examples of words formed with 薄:
薄弱 - weak, frail
薄膜 - membrane, film
浅薄 - shallow, superficial, meager
*Note how aside from “薄膜“, the given words are quite negative ☹️
Here are some example sentences:
那本书比较薄，所以我四个小时以内就把它看完了。
That book was rather thin, so I finished it within 4 hours.
我不喜欢古代小说，它们的人物很浅薄。
I don’t like novels from olden times, their characters are very shallow
Using Them Together
While 厚 and 薄 are antonyms, they can actually be used together in certain words and expressions. Here are some notable cases:
The Chinese chengyu, or 4-character idiom, “厚此薄彼“, literally “thick this thin that”, is a figurative expression used to say that someone is being favorable to one person while treating another person poorly.
In this idiom, 厚 corresponds to “favoring”, while 薄 corresponds to “not favoring, treating poorly”.
Here’s an example use:
教室里禁止用手机，但是老师让小楼用手机。厚此薄彼啊！
Using cell phones is prohibited in the classroom, but the teacher let Xiaolou use his cell phone. This is favoring one while being unfavorable to another!
In another case, the word “厚薄“ can be used to say “thickness”. 厚薄 can also be used as an abbreviation of “厚此薄彼”.
To Conclude
Here are the main takeaways you should've gotten from this article:
The definitions and the connotations of 厚 and 薄
Words that can be formed with each character
Cases where 厚 and 薄 can be used together
Try out this quiz to test your knowledge!