金黄
golden yellow ; golden
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 only shifts
144 near-synonym pairs: reversing them changes the register or the construction, not the definition.
紧握
to hold firmly, not let go
上报
to report to one's superiors ; to appear in the news ; to reply to a letter
报上
in the newspaper
伤感
sad ; emotional ; sentimental
感伤
sad ; downhearted ; sentimental
乡下
countryside ; rural area
下乡
to go to the countryside
楼层
floor ; story (of a building)
层楼
multistoried building ; tower ; pagoda
算计
to reckon ; to calculate ; to plan
退后
to stand back ; to go back (in time) ; to yield
应答
to reply
实事
fact ; actual thing ; practical matter
要紧
important ; urgent
紧要
critical ; crucial ; vital
气力
strength ; energy ; vigor
用药
drug use
药用
medicinal use ; pharmaceutical
年前
by the end of the year ; at the end of the year ; shortly before New Year
末期
end (of a period) ; last part ; final phase
回转
to revolve ; to rotate ; to turn around
转回
to turn back ; to put back ; reversal
云彩
(coll.) cloud
彩云
rosy clouds
行车
to drive a vehicle ; movement of vehicles
车行
car-related business ; car dealership ; taxi company
夜半
midnight
长成
to grow up
白发
white or gray hair
发白
to turn pale ; to lose color ; to go white
出外
to go out ; to leave for another place
民居
houses ; homes
光电
photoelectric
电光
electric light ; lightning ; electro-optical
台下
off the stage ; in the audience
下台
to go off the stage ; to fall from position of prestige ; to step down (from office etc)
叫喊
exclamation ; outcry ; shout
喊叫
to cry out ; to shout
工分
work point (measure of work completed in a rural commune in the PRC during the planned economy era)
年来
this past year ; over the last years
来年
next year ; the coming year
客房
guest room ; room (in a hotel)
房客
tenant
一统
to unify ; unified
动摇
to sway ; to waver ; to rock
摇动
to shake ; to sway
跪下
to kneel down
下跪
to kneel ; to go down on one's knees
水滴
drop
滴水
water drop ; dripping water
人名
personal name
刷牙
to brush one's teeth
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.