# 见面 / 见个面



## kyrintethron

Alright, I feel I've done my due diligence hunting exhaustively for an explanation on the 个 stuck between the verb and object in 见面. I learned all about separable verbs, and I'm okay with other uses like 见一次面 and 见了面. Those make sense to me.

But for the life of me, I cannot figure out precisely what the function of the 个 is in the phrase 见个面.

This can kind of make sense to my English-based brain with phrases like 吃个饭 (eat a meal), 睡个觉 (≈ sleep a sleep), and especially 睡个好觉 (sleep a good sleep). But even then, I don't know if these serve as different ideas or if they're just different ways of saying the same thing.

In summary:

1) What is the function of 个 in 见个面?
2) Is 见个面 different from 见面?
3) And why would someone elect to use 见个面 instead of 见面?

Thanks!
-K


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## supern001

in my opinion, 见个面 and 见面 are almost the same. 见个面 is more casual than 见面. and i can't think of 见个面 used elsewhere than 我们见个面，好吗？


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## xiaolijie

As supern001 has said, 见个面 and 见面 mean the same but one is more casual than the other. Regarding your other half of the question: what 个 is doing in 见个面? It does a very similar job to 一次 in 见一次面 which you've already acknowledged. They are both measurewords, aren't they? (But note that 见一次面 and 见个面 are not always interchangeable, if at all.)

Welcome to the forum, supern001 !


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## SuperXW

In my opinion,
if a Chinese word or phrase has [verb-noun] format, people sometimes add a 个 in-between to show a casual manner. 
见面 见个面
洗脸 洗个脸
冲澡 冲个澡
考试 考个试
Yeah, they mean the same thing, but adding 个 feels less serious.
E.g. 我要跟他见个面，回头再来找你。Sounds like meeting "him" is not a big deal, "you" are more important. 
我要跟他见面，回头再来找你。Sounds like you have some important thing to meet him, or you are obligated to meet him.

Sometimes people use different measure word according to the noun.
洗脸 洗个脸 洗把脸


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## tarlou

They are roughly the same. Grammatically I think 见个面 is more like 见一次面, where 一 is omitted. You can also say 见次面, 吃顿饭, etc. But 个 is more common (depending on the noun and context) in these phrases regardless of the measure word.


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## kyrintethron

Ah! I get it now!

This is like the difference between "I am going to meet with him" and "I am going to meet up with him". 

As per usual, 你们的 help has been invaluable. Only a few questions remain, and they're mostly pedantic:

One of my troubles with 见面/见个面 is that 面, as far as I can determine, means "face". So, to "see a face" confused me.

见一次面 seemed less confusing, because I basically interpreted it as "见面 one time", though this seems slightly off right now. How would 你们 translate this?

Also, tarlou, you said that 见个面 = 健次面. Did you mean that they are similar in terms of their meaning? or just their casualness?

As I said before, 面 is giving me a hard time in these phrases, especially when coupled with 一次 and 次 alone. Should I be thinking about it in another manner besides "face"?

谢谢!
-K


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## tarlou

kyrintethron said:


> One of my troubles with 见面/见个面 is that 面, as far as I can determine, means "face". So, to "see a face" confused me.
> 
> 见一次面 seemed less confusing, because I basically interpreted it as "见面 one time", though this seems slightly off right now. How would 你们 translate this?
> 
> As I said before, 面 is giving me a hard time in these phrases, especially when coupled with 一次 and 次 alone. Should I be thinking about it in another manner besides "face"?



I also think 见面 is a little bit strange, at least not as straightforward as 吃饭. I think it is basically "see (each other's) face". There are phrases like 见某人的面, which means "to see somebody".
You know a language always has many conventions and idioms. We normally just blindly use the phrase without noticing the irregularity...




kyrintethron said:


> Also, tarlou, you said that 见个面 = 健次面. Did you mean that they are similar in terms of their meaning? or just their casualness?


见个面 and 见次面 are the same in terms of meaning, and they are both causal. But 见个面 is more common (at least in my area).

They are actually a little bit different from 见面 (in terms of meaning): 见个/次面 is more like "have a meeting", whereas 见面 is more like "meet", or maybe "have the meeting".
---我们什么时候见个面吧？ Can we have a meeting sometime? (We haven't scheduled any meeting before the conversation.)
---好啊，我们明天早上见面吧。OK, let's meet tomorrow morning.

我们什么时候见面？ When will we meet? ("We" should meet recently, possibly we have already scheduled a meeting and I'm looking forward to seeing you. This is "the meeting".)


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## mancoffee

见面可以用在疑问句里，比较口语，见面更书面


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## BODYholic

kyrintethron said:


> 1) What is the function of 个 in 见个面?
> 2) Is 见个面 different from 见面?
> 3) And why would someone elect to use 见个面 instead of 见面?



When "见面" and "见个面" can be used interchangeably, "个" functions as a softener. Other then that it adds little meaning to the entire sentence.

E.g. "添饭" vs "添点饭" 
从来就就只有主人家说:添饭
作客的只能说:添点饭


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## SuperXW

mancoffee said:


> 见面可以用在疑问句里，比较口语，见面更书面


你真的该每次检查一下自己写的东西……


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## 文星辰simon

I don't think there is a preference. 




SuperXW said:


> In my opinion,
> if a Chinese word or phrase has [verb-noun] format, people sometimes add a 个 in-between to show a casual manner.
> 见面 见个面
> 洗脸 洗个脸
> 冲澡 冲个澡
> 考试 考个试
> Yeah, they mean the same thing, but adding 个 feels less serious.
> E.g. 我要跟他见个面，回头再来找你。Sounds like meeting "him" is not a big deal, "you" are more important.
> 我要跟他见面，回头再来找你。Sounds like you have some important thing to meet him, or you are obligated to meet him.
> 
> Sometimes people use different measure word according to the noun.
> 洗脸 洗个脸 洗把脸


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## kyrintethron

Okay, I think I understand this now. It feels very similar to the way that we use "softener"/"casualizing" prepositions like "up", "down" and even the article "a" in phrases like "take a shower" vs just "shower". I will keep all of this in mind for the future. 

谢谢你们,
-K


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## Kelby

见个面 seems to be the more casual of the two to me.


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