# 发小



## yuechu

Hello/大家好，

I was watching Chinese TV today and heard the following sentence:

"这个人叫张继伟，是刘波的发小."

Does anyone know what 发小 means? I'm guessing it might mean "friend" from the context but am not sure.. (I couldn't find the word in any dictionaries. Is it slang perhaps?)

Thanks/谢谢！


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## Alice.jiang

Hi, baoshen
You make a right guess. "发小"is a word usually used by beijingers and means a friend known each other since young.


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## yuechu

Thanks again for your reply! Would this be similar to 哥们儿/兄弟? (used between guys?)

Oh, and just to confirm the pronunciation: it would be fa1xiao3, right?


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## mayingdts

1. 发小is not similar to 哥们儿/兄弟. Because 发小 has nothing to do with the sex. So, two women can be 发小. A man and a woman also can be 发小. 
2. 发小=fa1xiao3er(儿化音)


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## mayingdts

Alice.jiang said:


> Hi, baoshen
> You make a right guess. "发小"is a word usually used by beijingers and means a friend known each other since young.


should be ”since very young“


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## SuperXW

baosheng said:


> Thanks again for your reply! Would this be similar to 哥们儿/兄弟? (used between guys?)
> 
> Oh, and just to confirm the pronunciation: it would be fa1xiao3, right?



1. 哥们儿/兄弟 = "bro". Must be males. Like mayingdts said.
I think today's 发小 usually have the same gender. If a guy tells others he befriend with some girl since young, people would automatically think you have some intimate relationship...They'll say 青梅竹马, a term to describe such a relationship between opposite genders. 
2. 哥们儿/兄弟 doesn't have to be your friends since very young. You can even call a stranger 哥们儿/兄弟.


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## mayingdts

青梅竹马? in my opinion, 青梅竹马 is used to describe a pair of lover .  发小 DO NOT need have the same gender


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## SuperXW

mayingdts said:


> 青梅竹马? in my opinion, 青梅竹马 is used to describe a pair of lover . 发小 DO NOT need have the same gender



Ok...It's a personal choice then... Relationship is complicate...


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## Martindehk

来自北京的各位，是说“哥们儿”的吗？

因为我常常听到的都是“哥儿们”的说。。。。


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## otis8883

baosheng said:


> Hello/大家好，
> 
> I was watching Chinese TV today and heard the following sentence:
> 
> "这个人叫张继伟，是刘波的发小."
> 
> Does anyone know what 发小 means? I'm guessing it might mean "friend" from the context but am not sure.. (I couldn't find the word in any dictionaries. Is it slang perhaps?)
> 
> Thanks/谢谢！



1st. 发小 is described as a relationship between 2 friends known each other since very young, like since kindergarten. No matter about gender.

The pronunciation is "fa4 xiao3"
its not 儿话音 mentioned by someone upstairs


2nd: 哥们儿\兄弟 can be used to describe  friends or  strangers. Usually used bertween males, and females to describe males.  BUT, sometimes its used by a male when talking\texting with a female if they're good friends


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## mayingdts

1.哥们儿，确定绝对是儿化音。“哥们”讲不通
2.发小vs发小儿，我的第一感觉是“发小儿”，但“发小”依然感觉可接受。这个回头我请教下正宗北京人。
3.关于何时儿话何时不儿话，感觉更多是一种习惯。刚来北京市，我会说“前门儿”（此为地名，位于天安门南侧，非前门后门的前门），但其实是“前门”，不能加儿化音。类似还有“崇文门”“复兴门”而非“崇文门儿”“复兴门儿”。可能是为了表现一种严肃庄重，所以不加儿化音吧。但对于建筑物的前门后门，我的感觉是又可说成前门儿后门儿。
4.有些必须儿化音，如“哥们儿”
5.有些可儿话可不儿话，如媳妇=媳妇儿。但一般不加儿化音听起来更庄重，适用于较正式场合。


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## otis8883

mayingdts said:


> 1.哥们儿，确定绝对是儿化音。“哥们”讲不通
> 2.发小vs发小儿，我的第一感觉是“发小儿”，但“发小”依然感觉可接受。这个回头我请教下正宗北京人。
> 3.关于何时儿话何时不儿话，感觉更多是一种习惯。刚来北京市，我会说“前门儿”（此为地名，位于天安门南侧，非前门后门的前门），但其实是“前门”，不能加儿化音。类似还有“崇文门”“复兴门”而非“崇文门儿”“复兴门儿”。可能是为了表现一种严肃庄重，所以不加儿化音吧。但对于建筑物的前门后门，我的感觉是又可说成前门儿后门儿。
> 4.有些必须儿化音，如“哥们儿”
> 5.有些可儿话可不儿话，如媳妇=媳妇儿。但一般不加儿化音听起来更庄重，适用于较正式场合。




ive asked my buddy, they said it should be "fa4 xiao3er  儿化音"
but i personally think its fine to pronounce 发小 without “er"， and you must pronounce 哥们 with ”er“， or its really really weird


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## yuechu

Thank you everyone for your replies! It's interesting to hear about the 儿话音.
Would most people agree that the pronunciation* fa4*xiao3(er) is more common than *fa1*xiao3(er)? Does the "发" fa4 here therefore mean "hair"? (髮 opposed to 發?)


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## otis8883

发小儿 only spoken in north of china, such as beijing北京 and dongbei province东北省。 so yeah,  its more common to hear faxiao3(er), but if u cant pronounce correctly, faxiao without "er" is much better.

发 in simplified chinese means both "髮 and 發".
but in this term(发小), i dont think it has any particular meaning. If must, i prefer  "髮", maybe it can imply that friends have known each other since their hair started growing


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## yuechu

Oh, sorry, I mean whether it's more common for the first character to be pronounced fa1 (which mayingdts wrote above in post#4) or fa4 (which you wrote above in post #10) or whether they are equally common. I tried to listen to it many times on the TV show, but unfortunately this is one of the situations/combinations where the two tones sound similar to my ears...


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## otis8883

its def. 4~ ,  no locals would do 1


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## yuechu

oh, ok--Thanks again, Otis8883!


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