Qing Wen: Different Ways to Say "Use" in Mandarin Chinese: 用 yòng, 使用 shǐyòng 利用 lìyòng | ChinesePod

FIONA: Hi, everyone. Welcome to ChinesePod.

My name's Fiona.

GWILYM: My name's Gwilym, and today, we have

TOGETHER: Qing Wen.

GWILYM: Recently I've been taking Mandarin classes,

and some of the students were asking the difference

between the ways to say "to use" in Chinese.

There are three characters, and what are they?

FIONA: We have yong, shiyong, and liyong.

Yong, shiyong, liyong.

Now all three can be translated as "to use,"

and they do seem quite similar,

but there are some very distinct differences,

if not in meaning, definitely, in the way it's used,

so we're going to go through some examples today.

GWILYM: Now, let's start with the first one.

The most simple and the most common one is:

FIONA: Yong. This is literally "to use."

Let me give you an example.

(CHINESE).

GWILYM: Chinese people use chopsticks to eat dinner.

FIONA: (CHINESE).

GWILYM: I use the computer to do my work.

FIONA: Or (CHINESE).

GWILYM: I use salt to add flavor?

FIONA: To season my food.

GWILYM: To season. Okay. This is the most basic character to understand

and, obviously, the most common.

FIONA: It's not just common in terms of being seen

in a written form.

It's the most colloquial,

the one that you'll hear the most

in day-to-day conversations.

Now how about the second one, which is:

TOGETHER: Shiyong.

FIONA: Shiyong. You have to be careful because shiyong,

second tone, makes it practical.

We're talking about shiyong,

third tone, fourth tone.

GWILYM: Ah. So it's a different character.

FIONA: Shiyong.

GWILYM: Third tone, fourth tone,

this translates as "to use,"

and it's basically the same meaning.

How is it different?

FIONA: The first and most important difference is that

it's more of a written form of yong.

By default, it being a written form,

it's slightly more formal.

Slightly more formal, it's more of a written form.

Let me give you a couple of examples.

You can use this bank card abroad. (CHINESE). You can use this bank card abroad.

GWILYM: Because that's talking about a rather formal process,

you would use this slightly a more advanced word.

FIONA: You can also use yong in this case.

(CHINESE) You can say ye keyi shiyong, ye keyi yong. Now, if you're calling the bank,

the bank lady or the customer service rep

is probably going to be like, (CHINESE),

If you call up your friends, (CHINESE).

GWILYM: Just remember, same meaning,

but one is more formal.

How do you say formal in Chinese?

FIONA: (CHINESE).

GWILYM: Also, it will be more common in written language,

which is usually more formal.

FIONA: (CHINESE). Let me just give you one more example

where both can be used. (CHINESE).

GWILYM: These bits of equipment, very few people use.

FIONA: You can also say (CHINESE). Now one's more formal. One's more colloquial.

One's more informal.

Now, do you notice a pattern here

with these two sentences?

Usually, when it can be used interchangeably,

it's when it's at the end of the sentence.

Now that we've looked at example sentences

where they can be used interchangeably,

let's look at where

they cannot be used interchangeably.

You have to change

the structure of a sentence a little bit.

Now you might be at a shop, and you want to ask,

excuse me, how do I use this thing? You would say, (CHINESE).

GWILYM: Please tell me how to use this.

Now, Fiona's used some more formal bits of language there.

FIONA: That's natural.

When you have more formal bits of vocabulary,

the other bits of vocabulary surrounding it

will become more formal.

(CHINESE). Now, if you want to make it more colloquial

and use yong,

you would have to change your sentence though.

You would have to say, (CHINESE). How about another one? (CHINESE).

The colloquial version of that would be (CHINESE).

You can see the words that go along together

with shiyong are always more formal. (CHINESE).

GWILYM: We've just talked about the verbs yong and shiyong.

I've heard that it can be used, the shiyong, as a noun.

FIONA: That's a good point.

I think that's one of those distinguishing factors

between yong and shiyong. Because

shiyong is more formal,

you'll see it in more specific nouns.

Let me give you a couple of examples. First one: shiyong zhe.

GWILYM: Shiyong zhe. That is a user.

For example, an iPhone user would be an iPhone—

FIONA: Shiyong zhe.

Or, I just thought this, a user interface.

Wait, I'm not very clued up on tech language

in both languages, but let me just try.

I think it would be (CHINESE) a user interface.

Also, let's look at shiyong fangshi.

You might read this in a (CHINESE). You might find this in instruction booklets.

GWILYM: Shuoming is the word for instructions.

I guess, shiyong can be translated as usage instructions.

FIONA: Exactly. So you can say, (CHINESE).

Can you please tell me what is the appropriate way

to use this washing machine?

GWILYM: I guess, when you turn it into a noun,

it goes from "to use" into "usage."

FIONA: That's right.

Now let's look at the final one, which is liyong.

GWILYM: Liyong, two fourth tones.

How is this different to the previous two?

FIONA: The key thing here is meaning and not how it's used.

The key thing about liyong is that

it's always in the context of exploitation,

someone taking advantage of someone or something.

Most often, there's a negative connotation to it.

There are examples

where you can use it in a positive way, but most often when you hear (CHINESE).

GWILYM: In English, we could translate that as,

"he is using him," which means in a bad way,

or "he's taking advantage of him."

"He is taking him for a ride."

He's exploiting them in some way.

FIONA: (CHINESE).

B is always losing out.

When you're liyong-ing,

(CHINESE), the other person doesn't benefit from the situation.

It's not a win-win situation. It's most often negative.

Let me give you an example. (CHINESE).

GWILYM: He said we would work together,

and yet I'm doing all of the work. He's using me.

FIONA: (CHINESE). If you hear people talk about using each other,

it's liyong.

In a context of people or situations,

it's most often bad.

Let me give you the example that I talked about

where you can use it in

a more of a positive situation, more positive context. (CHINESE).

GWILYM: You should really use this opportunity to

speak with your boss and let him get to know you.

In this case, rather than saying,

use your boss, which implies a negative thing.

It's more take this opportunity.

Use this opportunity well.

FIONA: It's like a fixed expression

that you can learn as a chunk

and that has a positive because

you're taking advantage of a situation,

but you're not taking advantage of someone.

(CHINESE). He's using our boss.

That's always bad. Maybe just one,

I know we've talked about the definition,

but just to look at the characters itself,

li is (CHINESE). Benefit.

Yong. (CHINESE). When you properly use someone or something,

and you get (CHINESE), you get everything from it, that is liyong.

GWILYM: Okay. Let's just summarize. The first one is:

FIONA: Yong, and that is the most generic word for "to use."

GWILYM: Now, if you want to be a bit more formal,

and if you're either writing something more formal, you would use:

FIONA: Shiyong. That can be used as a verb, a noun,

and also you'll find it in some special nouns as well.

GWILYM: Finally, the most advanced one. And this is?

FIONA: Liyong, to use, to exploit, to take advantage of.

GWILYM: Have a go at checking out

some of the example sentences

that we used in the lesson.

We hope you enjoyed this class

and it makes it a bit more clear when to use which one.

FIONA: (CHINESE). If you have any questions,

do remember to get in touch with myself or Gwilym,

and then hopefully, we'll make it at the next Qing Wen. (CHINESE).

GWILYM: (CHINESE).