Five words meaning judging and assessing in Mandarin Chinese

The words 'to judge' and 'to assess' have quite a few different but related meanings. In Mandarin, a lot of these meanings are covered by one of the five words below:

英语单词"judge"和"assess"的含义有许多不同却又有关联，但是以下五个中文词语中都涵盖了多层交叉的含义。

判断 (pànduàn)

评判 (píngpàn)

评断 (píngduàn)

论定 (lùndìng)

裁决 (cáijué)

Here's a summary of the differences between these terms and how to use them.

以下是对这些词语的区别与用法的总结。

判断: to determine

判断 is similar to words like 'determine', 'decide' or 'discern' in English. As with the other words in this article, it can also be translated as 'assess' or 'judge'. It contains the character 判, which appears in the word for 'referee': 裁判员.

"判断"与英语中的 "determine", "decide" 或"discern"意思相近。和本文中的其它词一样，它也可以翻译为"assess"或 "judge"。其所包含的汉字"判"也是"裁判员" (referee) 中的"判"字。

Example sentences:

Xiǎoháizi bùnéng pànduàn shénme shì duì de, shénme shì cuò de.

小孩子不能判断什么是对的，什么是错的。 

Young children cannot determine what is right and what is wrong.

Nǐ yīnggāi zìjǐ pànduàn shénme shíhou hē le tài duō jiǔ.

你应该自己判断什么时候喝了太多酒。 

You should be able to judge when you've drunk too much.

Tóuzī tā néng pànduàn de hěn zhèngquè

投资她能判断得很正确。

She can assess investments very accurately.

评判: to pass judgment

评判 expresses judgment in a different sense to 判断, although it also includes 判. It refers to judging a person or their behavior, or commenting on something in a judgmental way. It's fairly easy to remember, as the two characters in 评判 are literally 'comment judge'.

虽然"评判"也包含"判"字，但是它的意思不同于"判断"。"评判"用于评价一个人或其行为，或评价某一事物。这个词很容易记住，它的字面意思就是"comment judge".

Example sentences:

Tā sānfānwǔcì píngpàn biérén

他三番五次评判别人。 

Time and again, he judges other people.

Nǐ búyào píngpàn biérén de chuántǒng wénhuà

你不要评判别人的传统文化。.

Don't judge other people's traditional culture.

Wǒmen yīnggāi gēnjù tā de zuòwéi lái píngpàn tā

我们应该根据他的作为来评判他。 

We should judge him according to his actions.

Duì nǐ lái shuō, wǒmen kěbù kěyǐ píngpàn biérén de zōngjiào

对你来说，我们可不可以评判别人的宗教？

In your view, can we judge other people's religion or not?

评断: to evaluate

评断 is judging in the sense of evaluating or sizing up. It can also refer to assessing the level of something. 评断 appears in the word 评断力, which is someone's ability to make wise or sensible judgments.

"评断"含有"评估、判断"的意思。它也可以用于评估某物的水平。而包含"评断"的"评断力"则指某人做出明智或合理判断的能力。

Example sentences:

Zhè cì miànshì de yìyì shì píngduàn nǐ hé bu héshì zhè jiā gōngsī

这次面试的意义是评断你合不合适这家公司。

The purpose of this interview is to assess whether or not you are suitable for the company.

Yīshēng yīnggāi kàn yánjiū zhìliàng lái píngduàn xīn de yàopǐn

医生应该看研究质量来评断新的药品。

Doctors should look at the quality of evidence to evaluate new medicines.

Wǒmen kěbu kěyǐ jǐnjǐn yòng zhìshāng lái píngduàn rénmen de cáizhì?

我们可不可以仅仅用智商来评断人们的才智？

Can IQ alone be used to evaluate people's intelligence?

论定: to conclude

论定 means to make a concluding judgment on a debate or comparison. There's a chengyu 盖棺论定, which is literally 'cover coffin discuss settle', meaning 'only when someone is dead can he or she be judged.'

"论定"指在辩论或比较中做出一个最终判断。成语"盖棺论定"，直译为"cover coffin discuss settle"，意思是"只有当一个人死后，对他的评价才会有定论"。

Example sentences:

Nǐ néng yīncǐ ér lùn dìng nǚ xìng zhǔyì háishì xūyào de

你能因此而论定女权主义还是需要的。

From this you can conclude that feminism is still necessary.

Kàn wán yánjiū yǐhòu, wǒmen qízhōng dà bùfèn rén lùn dìng yìmiáo shì jiàn hǎoshì

看完研究以后，我们其中大部分人论定疫苗是件好事。

After looking at the research, most of us conclude that vaccines are a good thing.

Yīnwèi tā zuò le bù shǎo bù hǎo de shì wǒmen kěyǐ lùn dìng tā shì bù hǎo de rén

因为他做了不少不好的事我们可以论定他是不好的人。

As he has done a lot of bad things, we can conclude that he is a bad person.

裁决: to judge (in court)

Finally, there is the legal sense of 'to judge', in a court of law: 裁决.

最后，"裁决"这个词是法律用语，相当于英语的"judge".

Example:

Zhège ànjiàn huì xūyào hěn cháng shíjiān lái cáijué

这个案件会需要很长时间来裁决。

Judging this case may require some time.

Summary

总结

All of these words can be translated as 'to judge', but with different connotations:

这些词语都可以翻译成"to judge", 却有着不同的含义。

判断 (pànduàn): to determine, to decide

评判 (píngpàn): to judge other people, to comment judgmentally

评断 (píngduàn): to evaluate, to assess

论定 (lùndìng): to conclude, to settle

裁决  (cáijué): to judge (in court)

The article is translated and editted by Chinlingo. Please indicate the source for any use, reproduction or transfer. 

本文由Chinlingo编译后发布，如需转载，请标明来源。