3 words meaning “to meet” in Chinese

The Chinese verbs 碰见 (pèngjiàn), 遇见 (yùjiàn) and 见面 (jiànmiàn) can be easy to get confused because of their similarity. Whilst all three words can mean "to meet", they're actually quite different in usage and grammar.

"碰见"、"遇见"和"见面"这几个中文动词由于太过相似而容易产生困惑。尽管这三个词均是"to meet"的意思，但它们在用法和语法上还是有很大不同。

The first point to remember is that 碰见 and 遇见 are actually very similar to each other, whilst 见面 is very different.

首先需要记住的一点是"碰见"和"遇见"两者非常相似，而"见面"则不一样。

碰见 and 遇见: unexpected encounters

碰见 and 遇见 are very similar in grammar and usage. Both of them mean "to meet", but in the sense of "to bump into" or "to meet unexpectedly". They're very similar in meaning, so don't worry too much about any differences between the two.

"碰见"和"遇见"在语法和用法上极其相似，两者都是"to meet"的意思，但有着"偶然碰到"或"意料外碰到"的意味。它们的意思很相像，因此，切勿过于担心两者之间的不同。

The other thing to remember about these two verbs is that they are transitive. You need to put an object after them.

另外需要记住的一点是这两个动词都是及物动词，你要在它们后面跟上宾语。

今天我碰见了一个老朋友。

jīntiān wǒ pèngjiànle yīgè lǎo péngyǒu.

Today I bumped into an old friend.

我上个星期在聚会上偶然遇见了他。

wǒ shàng gè xīngqí zài jùhuì shàng ǒurán yùjiànle tā.

I bumped into him at a party last week.

我从来没碰见过一个像你这样的女孩儿。

wǒ cónglái méi pèngjiànguò yīgè xiàng nǐ zhèyàng de nǚháir.

I've never met a girl like you before.

我昨天在车站遇见了一个帅哥。

wǒ zuótiān zài chēzhàn yùjiànle yīgè shuàigē.

I met a handsome guy at the bus stop yesterday.

Hopefully you can get the sense that 碰见 and 遇见 are about bumping into people unexpectedly. You might already know the person or be meeting them for the first time, but the meeting was unplanned.

但愿你能领会到"碰见"和"遇见"都是"意料之外碰到他人"的意思。你可能已经认识或者是第一次见到他们，但都是毫无计划的碰面。

Also note how 碰见 and 遇见 always take an object.

同时也要注意"碰见"和"遇见"需跟宾语。

见面: planned meetings

Unlike 碰见 and 遇见, 见面 is about meeting someone intentionally. This could be informally planning to see a friend or arranging to meet with your boss.

与"碰见"和"遇见"不一样的是，"见面"是指有意的碰面。这可以是非正式的计划去会见朋友或者安排与老板碰面。

The other big difference between 见面 and 碰见 / 遇见 is that 见面 is intransitive. That is, it can't take any objects.

另一个"见面"与"碰见/遇见"的较大不同在于"见面"是不及物的。也就是说，他不能跟上任何宾语。

This means you have to use structures like this:

这意味着你需要使用这样的结构：

[subject] 跟 [noun] 见面

You can use other conjunctions instead of 跟, e.g. 和 (hé) or 与 (yǔ), but remember that you can't put any noun after 见面.

你可以使用其他介词替代"跟"，比如"和"或"与"，不过记住你不能在"见面"之后跟上名词。

我希望我们能多和你见面。

wǒ xīwàng wǒmen néng duō hé nǐ jiànmiàn.

I hope that we will see you more often.

我们见面时间安排在一星期后。

wǒmen jiànmiàn shíjiān ānpái zài yī xīngqí hòu.

Let's arrange to meet in one week's time.

你们经常见面吗？

nǐmen jīngcháng jiànmiàn ma?

Do you often see each other?

我想我们以前没见过面。

wǒ xiǎng wǒmen yǐqián méi jiànguò miàn.

I don't think we've met before.

Translated from: chineseboost