Chinese Character learning: yi4jian4 and jian4 yi4

As we all know, learning to distinguish the characters with similar meaning is important in Chinese character learning. Different phrases may occur in different situations which indicate different meanings. In this Chinese language course, I will explain the differences between “意见(yi4 jian4)” and “建议(jian4 yi4)”.

These two phrases have the different appearance but the similar pronunciation. There is a blank filling in the AP Chinese Practice test. The question is as the follows:

Choose “意见” or “建议” to fill in the following blanks.

“对于这件事的这个提案(dui4 yu2 zhe4 jian4 shi4 de5 zhe4 ge4 ti2 an4)，你有什么（）或更好的（）？”

First of all, let me explain the basic meaning of these two phrases. “意见” previously means someone’s opinion or idea. And “建议 means advice. If we have a further analysis of them, we will find they differ from each other in many aspects. “意见” is more subjective than “建议”. “意见” is usually critical and it is aimed to those things which have already happened, while “建议” aims to those oncoming things especially a plan or a propose. “建议” seems to be more objective and constructive. People by using “建议’ are eager to receive other’s affirmation, and hoping to make some contributions to the issue.

In a Chinese school, the broadcast is announcing some vital things. And at the end, the headmaster said, “关于学校的安排，大家有什么意见和建议的都可以向老师及时反映。(guan1 yu2 xue2 xiao4 de5 an1 pai2, da4 jia1 you3 shen2 me5 yi4 jian4 he2 jian4 yi4 dou1 ke3 yi3 xiang4 lao3 shi1 ji2 shi2 fan3 ying4)” That means if you have any your own opinions on our arrangement or have better advice on it, you can reflect it to your Chinese teacher.

Besides, “建议” can be used as either a noun or a verb, however “意见” can only act as a noun.