# 发邮件



## yuechu

大家好！
I recently heard the following sentence on a TV show:
“具体的资料我会发邮件给你的。"
Does 发邮件 mean to send an email or send something in the mail? Could it mean either one in Chinese?
Thanks!


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## Cookingboom

most of time 发邮件means send an email    ill say 具体资料我会寄(邮件）给你的  that means mail


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## yuechu

Oh, I see! So 发邮件 = sending an email; 寄邮件 = sending a letter (or something else) by mail.

Thanks, Cookingboom!


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## T.D

yuechu said:


> Oh, I see! So 发邮件 = sending an email; 寄邮件 = sending a letter (or something else) by mail.
> 
> Thanks, Cookingboom!


Speaking for myself, I have never heard the phrase 寄邮件. （although it is grammatically correct）
寄 means 'to send something by post', and 邮件 today is almost always referring to emails.
Therefore, you either 寄信(send a letter by post), or 寄包裹 (send a parcel by post), or even 寄钱 (send money by post), but not 寄邮件 (send an email by post)


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## yuechu

Oh, that makes it clearer. Thanks for the info, T.D!


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## SuperXW

T.D said:


> Speaking for myself, I have never heard the phrase 寄邮件. （although it is grammatically correct）
> 寄 means 'to send something by post', and 邮件 today is almost always referring to emails.
> Therefore, you either 寄信(send a letter by post), or 寄包裹 (send a parcel by post), or even 寄钱 (send money by post), but not 寄邮件 (send an email by post)


Although 邮件 mostly refers to e-mail today, it still means "mail".
So 寄邮件 is grammatical and idiomatic.
There's a simple (but not always accurate) way to check whether a phrase is common or idiomatic: input the full Pinyin into a Chinese Pinyin inputing method, and see if the expected result will be shown.
When I input "jiyoujian", 寄邮件 appears in my 搜狗拼音输入法.


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## T.D

SuperXW said:


> Although 邮件 mostly refers to e-mail today, it still means "mail".
> So 寄邮件 is grammatical and idiomatic.
> There's a simple (but not always accurate) way to check whether a phrase is common or idiomatic: input the full Pinyin into a Chinese Pinyin inputing method, and see if the expected result will be shown.


Yes
Yes and maybe yes
Definitely no


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## SimonTsai

yuechu said:


> 具体的资料我会发邮件给你的。


This is possible in speech but not perfectly suitable for a formal writing, I would say.

'發' in your context means to send a message or something else, whatever the means is. So it is more general than '寄', which is restricted to sending by post. (When we text someone, we always say '發' or '傳' and never say '寄'.)


T.D said:


> 邮件 today is almost always referring to emails.


'郵件' refers to anything to be delivered, being delivered, or delivered and received through the post. '郵件' exactly equates to 'post items' in British English. (As a matter of fact, here in Taiwan, there is a regulation concerning the handling of post items. It lists some of the commonest items such as postcards and publications.)


> Speaking for myself, I have never heard the phrase 寄邮件.


Neither have I.

I think that it is because '郵件' is a formal word and is infrequently used in everyday life, and '寄' is a shorthand for '寄送' and is informal, that the combination of the two sounds unusual. ('寄送郵件' is legitimate and natural-sounding.)


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## T.D

SimonTsai said:


> '郵件' refers to anything to be delivered, being delivered, or delivered and received through the post.


Yes, that was careless of me.

In daily conversation, however, when talking about sending something (physical) by post, I tend to spell that thing out clearly. （instead of using a collective noun)  And I strongly suggest that many others (if not every) will do the same, in mainland at least.
That being said, 寄信，寄包裹，寄快递，寄明信片 are common.

But 寄邮件 or 寄送邮件 sounds very unnatural to me.
A possible scenario to use 寄邮件 is that, you are actually talking about post item in general.  For example,  任何单位和个人不得私自开拆、隐匿、毁弃他人邮件。 



SimonTsai said:


> I think that it is because '郵件' is a formal word and is infrequently used in everyday life


I kind of think it's because you have the word " 電郵 “ in taiwan, while we don't.
Here 邮件 is a very commonly used word. And whether it is referring to an email or a post item somehow depends on the verb.
If it's 发邮件, then it's definitely emailing. If it's 寄, then it's a post item.


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## SuperXW

T.D said:


> But 寄邮件 or 寄送邮件 sounds very unnatural to me.
> A possible scenario to use 寄邮件 is that, you are actually talking about post item in general.  For example,  任何单位和个人不得私自开拆、隐匿、毁弃他人邮件。


I don't know why you feel it is very unnatural.
百度(寄邮件)
It is totally natural.


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## SimonTsai

T.D said:


> I kind of think it's because you have the word " 電郵 “ in [T]aiwan


You are right that we have '電郵' as a shorthand, but in fact, we prefer '電子郵件'.


> If it's 发邮件, then it's definitely emailing. If it's 寄, then it's a post item.


Here we usually use '寄' for both. '發' is typically used in sending items to a large number of recipients. Also, we have the word '寄發'.


> In daily conversation, however, when talking about sending something (physical) by post, [we] tend to spell that thing out clearly (instead of using a collective noun). [...] That being said, 寄信，寄包裹，寄快递，寄明信片 are common.


I guess that you meant 'that is to say'. 

Things are exactly the same here. And we tend to say '寄信' even when referring to sending e-mails in an informal setting. That is why '郵件' is infrequently used.


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## SuperXW

I think most Mainland Chinese would understand and accept 电邮, even though they don't intentionally use it.


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## T.D

SimonTsai said:


> You are right that we have '電郵' as a shorthand, but in fact, we prefer '電子郵件'.


We also have 电子邮件. But for some reason we abbreviate it as 邮件, instead of 电邮. (come to think about it, 电邮 is a better abbreviation)
Saying something like 我给你发了一封电子邮件 is unnecessarily precise and awkward here in mainland, in my opinion.

Also, I reconsidered it and 发邮件 does not always have to be referring to an email, I‘ll take that back.


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## SimonTsai

yuechu said:


> So 发邮件 = sending an email; 寄邮件 = sending a letter (or something else) by mail.


I think that now it is generally agreed that '發' can also be used in sending physical mails, not only in Taiwan but in the mainland as well, given @T.D's latest post.


T.D said:


> 我给你发了一封电子邮件 is unnecessarily precise and awkward here in [the] mainland


That sentence is actually possible here, but I guess that I would say, '我寄了一封信給你'. This is technically ambiguous but in my experience, people would assume that it refers to an e-mail. (Physical mails are dying out of everyday communication. Most of them are by government-related bodies.)


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