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Is 着 the same as 著? Can I interchange them, for example:

Is

這位着名的歌手的名字是__

The same as

 這位著名的歌手的名字是__

(put a name in "__")

54D
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  • Is there a 着 character in Traditional Chinese? I don't think so. – imrek Jan 06 '15 at 13:28
  • Yes. I'm trying to find it for you now -- I've seen it in one of my friend's Chinese textbook. – 54D Jan 06 '15 at 13:36
  • 着 is a simplified character, you won't find it in Traditional Chinese dictionaries: http://dict.revised.moe.edu.tw/cgi-bin/newDict/dict.sh?idx=dict.idx&cond=%26%2330528%3B&pieceLen=50&fld=1&cat=&imgFont=1 – imrek Jan 06 '15 at 13:38
  • So both words have the same meaning? I can change it to the other one and it's still correct? – 54D Jan 06 '15 at 13:39
  • No. Not even in simplified Chinese. 著名 means famous. Here 著 is pronounced zhù and 著名 is written in both Chinese variants (Simpl./Trad.) this way. 着 doesn't have a zhù reading and doesn't correspond totally to the 著 character. – imrek Jan 06 '15 at 13:43
  • So there is no "着"... – 54D Jan 06 '15 at 13:44
  • Ah found something interesting on Wikitionary. Don't know if it's trustworthy or not. Anyway here's the link and I think I already found my answer. http://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/着 ( whoops link doesn't work, try typing the word into the search field ) – 54D Jan 06 '15 at 13:45
  • If you want to say 'zhùmíng' 著名, no. – imrek Jan 06 '15 at 13:45
  • Wiktionary is nice but, I wouldn't trust it. I know some people write 着名, but it's a wrong assumptions made by Simplified Chinese users. Even my IME gives 著名 if I type 'zhuming', since 着 has no such reading as zhu. – imrek Jan 06 '15 at 13:51
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    Thanks. Why not gather your comments and post it as an answer? ;) – 54D Jan 06 '15 at 13:52
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    @DrunkenMaster traditional Chinese has 着 as a folk form of 著. Since Song Dynasty, the functions of these two characters has been differentiated. As the auxiliary word pronounced zhe, Taiwan insists on using its "correct" form 著 (then 着 is always obsolete as a variant character in formal writing in Taiwan), but in Hong Kong and mainland China, formal documents should use 着 according to their standards (for HK, it's 常用字字形表). – Stan Jan 06 '15 at 14:05
  • @Stan Nice, but still, 著名 is 著名, even with this alternate popular form of 著. – imrek Jan 06 '15 at 14:10
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    @DrunkenMaster that's right. I've never seen 着名 either :) – Stan Jan 06 '15 at 14:11
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    in Simplified Chinese, 著 pronounced zhu and 着 pronounced zhe are completely different, and you can never interchange them. – Bolu Jan 06 '15 at 17:13

3 Answers3

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So here's a wrap up of the comments above.

着 is a Simplified Chinese only† character, so you won't find it in Traditional Chinese dictionaries, unless they explicitly list them.

See e.g. 教育部重编国语辞典. (找不到, because there is not such character in Traditional Chinese) I assume that OP uses Traditional Chinese because of the 這 used in the example sentences.

† EDIT: *As @Stan pointed out above, 着 is used even outside of Mainland China, as a folk alternate form of 著, but it is not considered correct, at least in Taiwanese usage. However it is a proper form as 'zhe' in HK.

However, we have 着 in Simplified Chinese where it corresponds mostly to the 著 character that is found both in Traditional and Simplified Chinese. The subtle, yet important difference is that when 著 is distinctively read 'zhù', it is written in both variants as 著 and in this case it doesn't correspond to 着. So 著名 is 著名 even in Simplified Chinese. In other cases - with different readings, like, 站著 (Trad.) corresponds to 站着 (Simpl.)

My theory is that some Simplified Chinese users are not aware of this use case and assume a 100% Simplified-Traditional correspondence between the two characters or even automatic ('character-by-character') machine transliteration could have contributed to the wrong assumption that 著名 can be written as 着名.

NS.X.
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imrek
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    Check 異體字字典, you will find 着 in many ancient Chinese dictionaries. – Stan Jan 06 '15 at 14:13
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    @Stan I have added your point, see the EDIT: paragraph. – imrek Jan 06 '15 at 14:17
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    Maybe I didn't express it clearly. "着" as zhe is the standard usage in HK, so I think it's not proper to consider it incorrect in traditional Chinese -- interestingly, ROC before 1949 adopted 着 as well. – Stan Jan 06 '15 at 14:33
  • "Simplified Chinese users ... assume a 100% Simplified-Traditional correspondence between the two characters" This is not the case. On the contrary, as Bolu commented on the question, Simplified Chinese users think them as two distinctive characters and are never interchangeable with each other. – NS.X. Jan 06 '15 at 17:26
  • in premodern Chinese of the sort found in lyrics 着 shows up as a variant of 著 in a variety of contexts - might want to look at 張相's excellent glosses in 詩詞曲語辭匯釋 if you have access to a good university library. It's quite interesting the number of places the character shows up. – Master Sparkles Jan 07 '15 at 00:03
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Although there is an accepted answer, it is better to write another to clarify it.

着 is an variant form of 著. But 著 has too many pronunciations and meanings. So they are functionally separated in two words, 著 and 着. Not all 著 can be written as 着.

In Hong Kong the distinction of 著 and 着 is very clear and they are never mixed up. Cantonese 著 pronounces tsu3 and 着 pronounces tsoek9, an entering tone word (入聲).

著 is about prominent, writing, says, 著名, 名著, 著作. 着 is about wearing, benefit, chess move. 着衫, 衣着, 得着, 着數, 一着.

着, a particle of Written Mandarin Chinese, 看着.

OmniBus
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「着」、「著 」are two distinctly different words. 「着 」means wear or clothing as a noun. As a verb, it means wearing 「穿着」or can be used to describe an action being done 「點着、看着」. 著 means authored 「著作」。In the 70s the Taiwanese government amalgamated the two words into one. In Hong Kong, Macau, Mainland China, Japan and Korea, the distinction between these unrealated words remained, and the two characters are not considered interchangeable, as it has been traditionally for thousands of years.

E Li
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