质地
texture ; background (texture) ; grain
Chinese Reversible Words
Chinese writes its words with two characters, and nothing stops you reading them the other way round. Most of the time nothing comes of it; sometimes a second word comes out, and lives its own life beside the first. 牛奶 is milk, 奶牛 is a dairy cow. 故事 is a story, 事故 is an accident. The two words share both their characters and nothing else.
It is a classic trap for learners, and it is also the best way to remember both: you stop confusing two words once you have seen them side by side. So this page puts them side by side, one left and one right, with their reading and their meaning.
The meaning flips
139 pairs whose two translations have nothing in common.
弟子
disciple ; follower
子弟
child ; the younger generation
下属
subordinate ; underling
属下
subordinate ; affiliated to ; subsidiary
人文
humanities ; human affairs ; culture
文人
cultivated individual ; scholar ; literati
情人
lover ; sweetheart
人情
human emotions ; social relationship ; friendship
用作
to use for the purpose of ; to serve as
走出
to leave (a room etc) ; to go out through (a door etc)
出走
to leave home ; to go off ; to run away
名著
masterpiece
当上
to take up duty as ; to assume a position ; to assume
合集
collection ; compilation
犯罪
to commit a crime ; crime ; offense
罪犯
criminal
入侵
to invade
侵入
to make (military) incursions ; to invade ; to intrude into
手枪
pistol
枪手
gunman ; sharpshooter ; sb who takes an exam for sb else
风暴
storm ; violent commotion ; fig. crisis (e.g. revolution, uprising, financial crisis etc)
暴风
windstorm ; (meteorology) storm (force 11 wind)
过错
mistake ; fault ; responsibility (for a fault)
班上
(in the) class
楼下
downstairs
下楼
to go downstairs
来历
history ; antecedents ; origin
历来
always ; throughout (a period of time) ; (of) all-time
定额
fixed amount ; quota
额定
specified (capacity, output etc) ; rated (capacity, output etc)
电邮
email ; abbr. for 電子郵件|电子邮件[dian4 zi3 you2 jian4]
邮电
post and telecommunications
争斗
to struggle ; to fight ; struggle
人道
human sympathy ; humanitarianism ; humane
道人
Taoist devotee (honorific)
租房
to rent an apartment
行进
to advance ; forward motion
滨海
coastal ; bordering the sea
海滨
shore ; seaside
上马
to get on a horse ; to mount
直径
diameter
径直
directly
低压
low pressure ; low voltage
压低
to lower (one's voice)
主公
Your Highness ; Your Majesty
分部
branch ; subsection ; to subdivide
楼上
upstairs ; (Internet slang) previous poster in a forum thread
上楼
to go upstairs
心动
heartbeat ; heart rate ; (fig.) emotionally affected
动心
to be moved ; to be tempted
自私
selfish ; selfishness
私自
private ; personal ; secretly
295 pairs in all.
Not every reversal is worth the same, and the page keeps them apart. The first kind flips the meaning: between "to lead" and "necktie", between "meeting" and "parliament", nothing is left in common. The second kind only shifts it: 互相 and 相互 both come out as "mutually", and what separates them is register and construction, not definition. Those are the harder ones, not the easier — no dictionary tells them apart, only usage does.
Linguists call these pairs reversible compounds; Chinese calls them 逆序词, "reversed-order words". The phenomenon is not a curiosity: most two-character words are loose enough a compound to survive both orders, and Chinese marks the job of each part by its place. In 牛奶, 牛 "ox" qualifies 奶 "milk"; in 奶牛 it is the other way round, and the animal takes the lead again.