# 敢于 / 勇于



## Staarkali

Hello all,

I came across with a question in an exercise book (说明：句子中有一个空儿，请在A B C D 四个答案中选择惟一恰当的填上):

青年人要___学习老年人的经验，才能少走弯路。
A.敢于  B.富于  C.善于  D.勇于

the answer is A and obviously it is not B, nor C. But I am unable to choose A over D, I thought there were fully interchangeable.

Could it be 勇于 is dare in the meaning of brave in face of a danger and 敢于 is dare in the meaning of taking some risk like feeling, reputation, or wealth?

Thanks in advance


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## w84u

Exactly! You have an amazing sense in Chinese!


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## ntmaster

I think it is an issue of idiomatic expression.
 
For example:
 
勇於任事 (o)
敢於任事 (x)
 
勇於承擔錯誤 (o)
敢於承擔錯誤 (x)
 
“敢於 + to do something” sounds awful and is incorrect.


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## w84u

In many situations, they can be interchangeably used. There may be subtle difference: 敢于 implies 'no worry', 勇于 'no fear'


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## 52frank

I think neither A or D is correct, but C is the right anwser.
善于学习 means be good at learning something, and we usually don't say 勇于学习 or 敢于学习 in Chinese.


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## Staarkali

52frank said:


> I think neither A or D is correct, but C is the right anwser.
> 善于学习 means be good at learning something, and we usually don't say 勇于学习 or 敢于学习 in Chinese.


 
Oops!! my bad!! Frank is completely right. *I double checked and found it's not A but C which is correct... *It seems that I can't retrieve the correct answer, even using the answer sheet... Sorry all for the misleading information, that was definitely on purpose, *善于 is the correct one...*

However, here the point is to check the difference between 勇于 and 敢于 which I quite got it now.


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## fyi

Well my view point 善于 will be used more common and popular than those three if the sentence being said. All except B will do if we just look at the first half of the sentence, the second half though, aiming to tell people the way or say short cut to do something, aint have the meaning of dare or brave kind of thing. So 善于 is more proper choice imo.
And when comes to the difference between 勇于 and 敢于 I can tell that the former have sort of commendatory meaning and the later usually be used as a neutral term.


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## 52frank

Staarkali said:


> Oops!! my bad!! Frank is completely right. *I double checked and found it's not A but C which is correct... *It seems that I can't retrieve the correct answer, even using the answer sheet... Sorry all for the misleading information, that was definitely on purpose, *善于 is the correct one...*
> 
> However, here the point is to check the difference between 勇于 and 敢于 which I quite got it now.


 
Thanks for your 敢于承认错误


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## Staarkali

Staarkali said:


> [...]that was definitely *not *on purpose, [...]





52frank said:


> Staarkali said:
> 
> 
> 
> [...]that was definitely *not *on purpose, [...]
Click to expand...

I typed it wrong: "definitively *not *on purpose... "
that was an unfortunate mistake, nothing more...


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## w84u

Hey, Staarkali, I think 52frank was humourously demonstrating how to use 敢于, wasn't he?


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## Staarkali

My last post was the result of reading my quote in Frank's post, and consequently my original post, and is in no way related to Frank's post. I didn't quote Frank but my own post twice.

On a personal note, it would be easier for everybody if we could edit our own post, it would prevent from a lot of chat. I can only edit some of my posts in the current thread


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## BODYholic

Staarkali said:


> Oops!! my bad!! Frank is completely right. *I double checked and found it's not A but C which is correct... *It seems that I can't retrieve the correct answer, even using the answer sheet... Sorry all for the misleading information, that was definitely on purpose, *善于 is the correct one...*
> 
> However, here the point is to check the difference between 勇于 and 敢于 which I quite got it now.



If you need an English translation,

勇 refers to courage
敢 refers to daring

Although this is trivia, I like to point out that there is no incorrect answer for this question. All of them are grammatically correct and make sense with plausible context. Only that 善于, which is what I will pick, is more appropriate and natural in this situation.


> (说明：句子中有一个空儿，请在A B C D 四个答案中选择惟一*恰当*的填上):


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## Kevin70s

I totally agree with Bodyholic.


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## samanthalee

I totally agree with BODYholic too.

勇于 has 褒义 (positive connotation), while 敢于 doesn't.



Staarkali said:


> I can only edit some of my posts in the current thread



You can edit posts that are no more than 24 hours old. There are historical reasons for this restriction. I can't remember the details, but it has been agreed the restriction will make WR a more pleasant place to hang around.


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## Lamb67

Ganyu'= dare , Both in English and Chinese , they do not have negative meanings in my view.

I dare to admit my mistakes.
Wo ganyu cheng ren wo de cuo wu.

Their opposit meaning words are very negative such as weak-minded, infirm, and hesitant etc.


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## Kevin70s

the word "勇于" does put a positive spin on the thing(s) to do, whereas "敢于" is pretty neutral in itself.


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## Staarkali

samanthalee said:


> [...]You can edit posts that are no more than 24 hours old. There are historical reasons for this restriction. I can't remember the details, but it has been agreed the restriction will make WR a more pleasant place to hang around.


well, there it goes then. Thanks for making it clear, I didn't know that. It used to be limitess in the past though


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## yujia9907

absolutely 善于! cos young guys learn from the old guys has been admitted already! so you dont have to be brave or  something else, you just know how to learn the experience of the old guys.
know how to learn it , i think can be translated into 善于 in this case.!


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