厚 vs 粗 || A Tale of Two Thicks

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Imagine you’re designing a new house with a Chinese colleague. When you two talk about the wall thickness in Chinese, they use the word “厚”, making you think that 厚 means thick. However, when you move on to discussing the thickness of the columns and supports, they say “粗”. What gives?

Let’s learn how to differentiate between 厚 and 粗!

TLDR

• 厚 means “thick” for physical and figurative contexts, with the figurative usage having a positive connotation

• 粗 means “thick” specifically for diameter

  • 粗’s figurative meanings are more tied with its other physical meaning of “coarse, rough”, with a negative connotation

厚

The character 厚 means “thick”. When used to describe the dimensions of an object, it usually means that the object is thick or substantial.

Ex:

1. 这本书很厚，有四百多页 (This book is very thick; it has over 400 pages) 📕

2. 城墙很厚，保护我们保护得很好 (The city walls are very thick, they protect us very well) 🧱

厚 can also be used to express thickness in a figurative sense, and it usually has a positive connotation ➕. This meaning doesn’t really exist in English, but is common in Mandarin. You can see this with some of the words it’s used in:

1. 深厚 - deep, profound (lit. “deep thick”)

   1. 我喜欢功夫熊猫，讨论很深厚的话题。

   2. I like Kung Fu Panda, it discusses very profound topics 🐼

2. 丰厚 - rich and generous (lit. “luxuriant thick”)

   1. 晚会的菜很丰厚，有十种菜，包括北京烤鸭！

   2. The evening party’s dish spread was very generous; there were 10 different dishes, including Peking duck!

3. 厚道 - honest and kind (lit. “thick moral”)

   1. 爷爷从小到死总是很厚道。

   2. From his childhood until death, Grandpa was always a kind person.

粗

粗 has several meanings including “thick”. However, you must note…

粗 is only used when referring to diameter!

Geometry(几何学）crash course: diameter is the length of the line segment that goes through the center of a circle (圆圈） ⭕

This means that 粗 is only used when discussing roughly circular, cylindrical objects.

Ex:

1. 这个支柱很粗，直径三尺。

   1. This pillar is very thick, it’s diameter is 3 feet.

2. 粗壮 - thick, brawny (lit. “thick strong”, used when describing muscles)

   1. 哇，那个游泳圆的胳膊非常粗壮！

   2. Wow, that swimmer’s arms are extremely thick! 💪

粗’s other meanings include “coarse” and “rough”. These meanings can apply in both physical and figurative contexts. However, unlike 厚, when used figuratively 粗 usually has a negative connotation attached to it ➖.

Ex:

1. Literal: 粗粮 (lit. “coarse grain”) - coarse grain, anything that’s not rice or wheat 🍚 🍞

   1. 你别吃米饭！还不如吃粗粮吧，对身体更好！

   2. Don’t eat rice! You’d be better off eating coarse grains, they’re healthier!

2. Figurative: 粗心 (lit. “coarse heart”) - careless, negligent

   1. 你不要说她很粗心，当母亲不是件容易的事。

   2. Don’t say she was careless, being a mother isn’t an easy thing to do.

These examples show that besides meaning “thick” in certain specific contexts, 粗’s literal meanings and the contexts its used in are quite different from 厚.

To Conclude

Here’s the main thing to take away from all this: Use 厚 to say “thick” in pretty much all circumstances except for when discussing circular or cylindrical objects. In this case, use 粗. Considering that the use case for 粗 as “thick” is pretty narrow, if you’re in doubt as to what’s the right word to use or if you just don’t want to try memorizing this rule, always default to saying 厚.

Try this quiz to test your newfound knowledge! 别粗心地做，仔细地回答！