# Pronunciation: 捂



## yuechu

Hello/大家好，

I recently heard the word "捂" being used in the expression "捂一下" in a TV show and the pronunciation was different than the dictionary. (Context: a girl is trying to get her neighbour to hold a cold pop can to his bruise) I believe they were pronouncing it "wu1yixia4" and the dictionary says "wu3".
How do you pronounce this word? Have you ever heard it pronounced with a tone other than the third tone?

Thanks!


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## retrogradedwithwind

In my experience, wu3 is of course right but wu4 may be right too.

焐 is wu4 and has a similar meaning to 捂。


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## fyl

wu3 is the right pronunciation. I have never heard of wu1 before.
wu4 means something slightly different. wu3 means just the action "to cover", but wu4 implies that you want to warm the object. The correct way to write wu4 is 焐, but sometimes people do mistakenly use 捂 for this wu4.


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## Skatinginbc

baosheng said:


> Have you ever heard it pronounced with a tone other than the third tone?


Yes.  I've often heard wu1 "to cover" (e.g., 遮捂, 捂掩, 捂住) and wu4 "to contradict, go against, disobey" (e.g., 抵捂) in Taiwan.
Historically 捂 is an alternative form for 迕 (wu3 or wu4, 迕逆, 錯迕).  Ancient rhyme books (e.g., 《唐韻》《集韻》《韻會》《正韻》) prescribe a falling tone (五故切，音誤) for 捂.

Icing a bruise with a cold pop can is the opposite of 焐 wu4, which means "to make warm with a hot object" (以熱的東西接觸涼的東西，使後者變暖).  Since it was pronounced as wu1, not wu4, in the TV show, my immediate interpretation was "to cover" 蓋住, that is, "to cover it with the cold pop can".


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## yuechu

Thanks for your help, retrogradedwithwind, fyl and Skatinginbc!


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## zhg

Sounds like a dialect variant, where did you hear it?

If it's Mandarin Chinese,wu3 is indeed the correct and common pronounciantion.

For Skatinginbc，I don't know how this word is pronouced in 国语when it means to cover, but I hadn't find any wu1 in my dictionary, can you provide the source?


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## Skatinginbc

zhg said:


> I hadn't find any wu1 in my dictionary, can you provide the source?


I said I've heard that pronunciation in Taiwan; I did NOT say it is the "right" pronunciation.  All modern dictionaries (including Taiwan dictionaries) prescribe /wu3/ for 捂.  

捂:
1. 同「迕」: 逆, 牴觸.  Both /wu3/ and /wu4/ are correct. 
2. 同「摀」 "to cover": 遮掩, 密封起來.  /wu3/ is correct, but /wu1/ can frequently be heard as a result of some people's "有邊讀邊" (烏 wu1 for 摀 wu3).
3. 同「梧」: 斜拄, 「抵捂」又作「柢梧」.  梧 reads /wu2/ (e.g., 梧桐) or /wu4/ (e.g., 魁梧).  Also, as a result of 有邊讀邊 (吾 wu2 for 捂 or 梧), some people simply read 捂 as wu2.

捂 is not a common character in Chinese, at least not in my neck of woods, so you may hear it pronounced /wu1/, /wu2/, /wu3/, /wu4/--virtually all possible tones.


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## yuechu

zhg said:


> Sounds like a dialect variant, where did you hear it?


It was on the TV show 《错婚》.


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## fyl

There is actually another possibility. It can be a mispronounced "敷一下" (or a wrong subtitle "捂一下").
捂 is a very common word in all northern Mandarin dialects I know. I just checked a few minutes of 错婚, it seems all actors are speaking with a northern accent. It would be a bit strange if they pronounce 捂 as "wu1".
More importantly, 捂 does not fit the context here. 捂 typically means to cover. If one is trying to 捂 a bruise, he should be trying to hide it from others. But it does not make sense to hide using a "can".
敷 is the right word for colding or warming an injury (as a medical treatment).


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## retrogradedwithwind

敷一下
This is the most possible character it should be. I agree with you fyl.


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## yuechu

fyl said:


> 敷 is the right word for colding or warming an injury (as a medical treatment).


For the reasons you listed, I think you must be right! (that 敷 is the intended word) Thanks, fyl, retrogradedwithwind and Skatinginbc for your further explanations!


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## zhg

baosheng can you tell us exactly in which episode it appears, I did a quick search on Baidu, which says some of the characters come from southern China(like 梁佩毅 and 秦颖）so it can be a deliberate imitation of southern dialect.


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## yuechu

Sorry, I forget what episode it was in now. But I know for sure that it was pronounced wu1. Zhg is right that this is one of the characters in the show from southern China （秦悦） but she speaks standard Mandarin in the show.


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## Frank Fang

wu1 must be the Dialect pronunciation， wu3 is correct.


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## Skatinginbc

In Taiwan, we normally write 摀 and seldom write 捂 for the meaning of "to  cover".  I've always assumed that wu1 is an erroneous pronunciation  associated with its 繁體 graph "摀" (有邊讀邊成"烏").  If there indeed exist Mainlanders who are used to simplified  characters and still habitually (not just one time accident or slurred  speech) pronounce 捂 as wu1, then it seems to be suggesting that the "error" has little to do with the graph, and that the graph 摀 was created because the phonetic element 烏 once faithfully  represented its pronunciation including its tone.


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