<p>Yes, they both have the &quot;broken&quot; meaning, with subtle differences. Unfortunately there are not many situations where you can simply replace one with the other - everyone will understand but you will still sound awkward if you use the wrong character. Plus there may be regional differences!</p>
<p>I suppose if you had to generalise, <strong>破</strong> is used when the breakage is obvious, there's a clear mark or split or wound, whereas <strong>坏</strong> is for things that are broken in more subtle ways, or less obvious. <strong>坏</strong> also tends to be used by default, when the situation is ambiguous (other characters for &quot;broken&quot; include 碎, 败, 漏, 裂 etc.)</p>
<p>So here's where you'd use <a href="http://www.zdic.net/z/17/js/574F.htm" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><strong>坏</strong></a> and why:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>手机坏了 (broken mobile phone), because the phone may look fine</p>
<p>鱼坏了 (the fish has spoiled), because the fish may otherwise look fine</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Here's where you'd use <a href="http://www.zdic.net/z/1f/js/7834.htm" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><strong>破</strong></a> and why:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>纸破了 (the paper is broken), because the paper has a visible hole or rip</p>
<p>鞋破了 (the shoe is worn), usually because you wear through the sole so that there's a hole</p>
<p>碗打破了 (the bowl is shattered), because the bowl is now in many pieces</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Also watch out for words that use <code>坏</code> or <code>破</code> since, as you may know already, Chinese words cannot be mixed-and-matched by replacing similar characters in them. E.g. you cannot replace the <code>破</code> in the word <code>破裂</code> with <code>坏</code> to get <code>坏裂</code>, as Chinese doesn't work that way.</p>
<p>For a bit of etymology which somewhat explains the subtle differences, <a href="http://www.zdic.net/z/17/sw/574F.htm" rel="nofollow noreferrer">坏</a> has the &quot;earth&quot; radical and originally meant &quot;unfired clay&quot;, so outward appearance is fine but it's not really &quot;made&quot;; <a href="http://www.zdic.net/z/1f/sw/7834.htm" rel="nofollow noreferrer">破</a> has the &quot;stone&quot; radical and originally meant stones shattering, so there's a visible, obvious breakage.</p>

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2014-02-25T03:02:43.133Z
2014-03-13T23:17:54.213Z
2020-06-17T09:50:11.587Z
congusbongus
<p>the meanings of 坏 correspond more to the English words "bad"/“rotten”.</p>

<p>好人/坏人 - Good guy/Bad guy
牛奶坏了 - The milk's spoilt / gone bad
一粒老鼠屎，坏了一锅粥 - One bad apple spoils a whole bunch (lit. a drop of mouse poo spoils a pot of congee.=)</p>

<p>破 has less of these negative connotations, and may sometimes even have positive ones in the sense of </p>

<p>突破 "making a breakthrough/breaking new ground" 
打破纪录 “breaking a record/setting a new record time"</p>

<p>In every everyday speech/slang, 破 along with 烂 is used as an adjective to mean disapproval, in the same was as crappy/shitty.</p>

<p>这什么破玩意 - what is this crap?
这破电影真难看 - this crappy movie is just awful</p>

<p>Incidentally, "破坏"  means destruction, which kinda tells you what the two characters have in common with regards to meaning.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-02-25T09:42:37.490Z
+1 for mouse poo and slang.
neubau
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2014-02-25T05:22:04.000Z
2014-02-25T05:22:04.000Z
Eldium
<p><li><h3>1. for "破"</h3></p>

<p>In fact in china, few people will directly say <code>手机破了</code>, but say <code>手机屏破了</code> or <code>手机壳破了</code>, here <code>屏</code> means the screen of the phone, and <code>壳</code> means the shell of the phone, because in Chinese, <code>破了</code> is often related to things like glass, or something used for packaging, or containers, so you can say: <code>我的包裹(package)破了</code>, <code>我的信封(envelope)破了</code>, <code>我的纸箱(carton)破了</code>, <code>我的花瓶(vase)破了</code>, they are both ok.</p>

<p>but, sometimes you can simply use it as <code>old</code>, or <code>outdated,</code> and so on, because we often use <code>破</code> with <code>旧(old, outdated)</code> together as <code>破旧</code>, here the two characters have the same meaning, one example is: <code>我的手机很破了</code>, <code>我的鞋很破了</code>, note here I use a character <code>很</code>, it means <code>very</code>, when you see these two characters used together, maybe someone wants to tell you something he is using is very old or outdated(and one possible reason maybe he doesn't have much money to afford a new one)</p></p>

<p><li><h3>2. for "坏"</h3></p>

<p>literally meaning of <code>坏了</code> is <code>broken</code>, <code>doesn't work any more</code>, if you say <code>手机坏了</code>, may be the screen and the shell are both fine but you just can't turn on the phone, tons of reason can cause this.</p></p>

<p>while there is another meaning of "坏了" --> you can simply understand it as "damn it!", so if something happened in a sudden and you don't know what to do, you would say "坏了!"</p></p>

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2014-02-26T08:35:04.327Z
2014-03-14T05:30:58.607Z
2014-03-14T05:30:58.607Z
maverickpuss
<p>坏了 = doesn't work / out of order, usually after an objects
for example 电视机坏了
坏了 = very generally refer to some parts of your body impaired. for example 腿坏了 = cripple
坏了！ = exclamation. similar to DAMN it!! 坏了，我忘带钱包了。 damn it! I forgot to bring my wallet.
坏了 = something goes bad/expired 牛奶坏了，不能喝了： the milk is expired, can't drink it.</p>

<p>破了 = broken</p>

<p>破了 = injured 手破了，流血了。 hand is injured and bleeding.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-02-25T04:44:35.467Z
2014-02-25T04:44:35.467Z
sotondolphin
<p>Just a side note to the other answers.  One way to capture the difference is to look at each one as the resultative element of a compound.  For 破, we might find this:  </p>

<blockquote>
  <p>他把我的手機打破了 ‘He smashed my cell phone.’  </p>
</blockquote>

<p>For 壞, this:  </p>

<blockquote>
  <p>他我的手機用壞了  ‘He was using my cell phone and now it doesn’t work.’  </p>
</blockquote>

<p>In both cases the cell phone is broken.  But in the first case it’s physically broken, in the second something more subtle happened.  打破了 and 用壞了 sound natural for this reason.  I don’t know if 打壞了 and 用破了 are possible compounds or not, but even if possible they would be going against the semantic grain as it were.   </p>

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2014-02-25T09:39:42.040Z
2014-02-25T09:39:42.040Z
neubau
<p>坏：bad -> roted -> malfunction. Something that is not good internally. NOTE, this does not mean it is <strong>useless</strong>, just mean there are some function that expected to work but actually not.</p>

<p>破：broken -> holes/spots in skin -> old. Something that is not good in the surface.</p>

<p>So, you say 坏手机 for a malfunction mobile, say 破手机 for an old mobile. If a pair of high heels was broken on the heel, you say "高跟鞋坏了", but if some one can see you leaked toes from your leather shoes, "这皮鞋破了"。</p>

<p>BTW: be careful to use the word "破鞋", this means "second hand woman" in a bad sense!</p>

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2014-03-04T11:03:09.063Z
2014-03-04T11:03:09.063Z
Earth Engine
<p>“坏” is a very general word meaning <strong>something "useless"</strong>, but what makes the thing "坏了" has many reasons, and “破了” is one of them, so when something's state is “破了”, you can also say something is “坏了”；<strong>However “破” means something is broken or has cracks</strong>. So <strong>when you describe something that is useless because of inner reasons such as quality, but it still looks nice in its aspect, “破了” is no longer used</strong>.</p>

<p>Try to compare the two sentences：</p>

<p>1）这热水袋破了（The warm-water bag is broken, <strong>maybe is of cracks by falling down onto the ground</strong>）.</p>

<p>2）这热水袋坏了（The phone is useless, <strong>maybe it doesn't keep warm anymore but NOT of cracks</strong>）.</p>

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2014-02-25T20:34:26.967Z
This is the best answer of the five existing ones IMHO.
deutschZuid
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2014-02-26T00:29:15.587Z
I really like this, congusbongus' and Eldium's answers, however this answer has been explained in a really easy to understand way. Thanks! :)
Ming
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2014-02-26T09:19:23.320Z
It's very uncommon to say 这手机破了. we only say 这手机坏了. You may often hear 破手机, which means this mobile phone has poor quality.
sotondolphin
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2014-02-26T09:23:21.177Z
“破手机” sometimes also means this style of the phone is overtime (not popular). However thank you for your tip, sotodolphin;)
xqMogvKW
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2014-02-27T06:21:10.783Z
You can also string the two together - "这热水袋破坏了。" means "This warm water bag is split/cracked/damaged to the point of being useless."
Joe Z.
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2014-02-25T08:16:05.437Z
2014-02-26T09:24:55.950Z
2014-02-26T09:24:55.950Z
xqMogvKW
<p>Looking for some concrete answers on the difference between <code>坏</code> and <code>破</code></p>

<p>From what I have been able to understand:</p>

<p><strong>坏</strong></p>

<ul>
<li>bad: as in 坏人 (bad person) or 鱼坏了 (rotten food)</li>
<li>broken: as in 手机坏了 (broken mobile phone,) or 腿坏了 (a broken leg)</li>
</ul>

<p><strong>破</strong></p>

<ul>
<li>ripped: as in 这张纸破了 (ripped piece of paper)</li>
<li>worn out: as in 鞋破了 (worn out shoes)</li>
<li>broken: as in 手机破了 (broken mobile phone,) but not a broken leg</li>
</ul>

<p>My issue is the overlap, unless I'm wrong. It looks to me to be something like a venn diagram (<a href="http://maass.nyu.edu/images/venn.jpg" rel="nofollow">http://maass.nyu.edu/images/venn.jpg</a>) where <strong>broken</strong> is shared by both words, and there are other meanings that belong only to each word. Is this right?</p>

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2014-02-25T01:54:39.520Z
I don't know where you get the translated meanings. But try understand the meanings using a Chinese dictionary and use the English one only as a _reference_. [坏](http://www.zdic.net/z/17/js/574F.htm) means bad or spoilt, not broken. But in English, anything that is broken is spoilt.
杨以轩
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2014-02-25T01:56:31.007Z
@QuestionOverflow `坏` as in `电视机坏了` is broken?
Ming
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2014-02-25T02:09:51.127Z
It means the tv is spoilt (broke down). 腿坏了 doesn't mean a broken leg (腿断了 does).
杨以轩
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2014-02-25T02:17:48.470Z
@QuestionOverflow hmm, in English spoilt isn't typically used on machinery, but rather for food or enjoyment. Broke down in this instance is the same as broken.
Ming
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-02-25T02:47:28.867Z
What I am trying to say is that there is no one-one mapping for languages. Neither is 破 used on a broken phone unless it is _literally_ broken (into pieces).
杨以轩
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-02-25T02:59:41.177Z
@QuestionOverflow thanks, I'm feeling that also. I thought that if I could use the words that are correct in English, but refine them with examples (what *kind* of broken) it would help to get an idea as to when to use `坏` and when to use `破`.
Ming
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-02-25T08:27:14.493Z
As a native speaker, I've never seen 手机破了... If you are saying that the mobile phone does not function normally, it's always 手机坏了. If you are saying that the cover or shell of the phone is damaged or cracked, then say 手机的壳破了
user58955
<mandarin><meaning><usage>
Difference between 坏 and 破
# Difference between 坏 and 破

(Asked by: username_0 on 2014-02-25)

Looking for some concrete answers on the difference between `坏` and `破`

From what I have been able to understand:

**坏**

* bad: as in 坏人 (bad person) or 鱼坏了 (rotten food)
* broken: as in 手机坏了 (broken mobile phone,) or 腿坏了 (a broken leg)

**破**

* ripped: as in 这张纸破了 (ripped piece of paper)
* worn out: as in 鞋破了 (worn out shoes)
* broken: as in 手机破了 (broken mobile phone,) but not a broken leg

My issue is the overlap, unless I'm wrong. It looks to me to be something like a venn diagram (<http://maass.nyu.edu/images/venn.jpg>) where **broken** is shared by both words, and there are other meanings that belong only to each word. Is this right?

**Tags:** mandarin, meaning, usage

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: I don't know where you get the translated meanings. But try understand the meanings using a Chinese dictionary and use the English one only as a _reference_. [坏](http://www.zdic.net/z/17/js/574F.htm) means bad or spoilt, not broken. But in English, anything that is broken is spoilt.  
> **username_0**: @QuestionOverflow `坏` as in `电视机坏了` is broken?  
> **username_1**: It means the tv is spoilt (broke down). 腿坏了 doesn't mean a broken leg (腿断了 does).  
> **username_0**: @QuestionOverflow hmm, in English spoilt isn't typically used on machinery, but rather for food or enjoyment. Broke down in this instance is the same as broken.  
> **username_1**: What I am trying to say is that there is no one-one mapping for languages. Neither is 破 used on a broken phone unless it is _literally_ broken (into pieces).  
> **username_0**: @QuestionOverflow thanks, I'm feeling that also. I thought that if I could use the words that are correct in English, but refine them with examples (what *kind* of broken) it would help to get an idea as to when to use `坏` and when to use `破`.  
> **username_2**: As a native speaker, I've never seen 手机破了... If you are saying that the mobile phone does not function normally, it's always 手机坏了. If you are saying that the cover or shell of the phone is damaged or cracked, then say 手机的壳破了  

---

## 7 answers

### Answer by username_9 on 2014-02-25. Score: 12 | Accepted answer

“坏” is a very general word meaning **something "useless"**, but what makes the thing "坏了" has many reasons, and “破了” is one of them, so when something's state is “破了”, you can also say something is “坏了”；**However “破” means something is broken or has cracks**. So **when you describe something that is useless because of inner reasons such as quality, but it still looks nice in its aspect, “破了” is no longer used**.

Try to compare the two sentences：

1）这热水袋破了（The warm-water bag is broken, **maybe is of cracks by falling down onto the ground**）.

2）这热水袋坏了（The phone is useless, **maybe it doesn't keep warm anymore but NOT of cracks**）.

> **Comments:**
> **username_10**: This is the best answer of the five existing ones IMHO.  
> **username_0**: I really like this, username_3' and username_4's answers, however this answer has been explained in a really easy to understand way. Thanks! :)  
> **username_7**: It's very uncommon to say 这手机破了. we only say 这手机坏了. You may often hear 破手机, which means this mobile phone has poor quality.  
> **username_9**: “破手机” sometimes also means this style of the phone is overtime (not popular). However thank you for your tip, sotodolphin;)  
> **username_11**: You can also string the two together - "这热水袋破坏了。" means "This warm water bag is split/cracked/damaged to the point of being useless."  

---

### Answer by username_3 on 2014-02-25. Score: 6

Yes, they both have the "broken" meaning, with subtle differences. Unfortunately there are not many situations where you can simply replace one with the other - everyone will understand but you will still sound awkward if you use the wrong character. Plus there may be regional differences!

I suppose if you had to generalise, **破** is used when the breakage is obvious, there's a clear mark or split or wound, whereas **坏** is for things that are broken in more subtle ways, or less obvious. **坏** also tends to be used by default, when the situation is ambiguous (other characters for "broken" include 碎, 败, 漏, 裂 etc.)

So here's where you'd use [**坏**](http://www.zdic.net/z/17/js/574F.htm) and why:

> 手机坏了 (broken mobile phone), because the phone may look fine
>
> 鱼坏了 (the fish has spoiled), because the fish may otherwise look fine

Here's where you'd use [**破**](http://www.zdic.net/z/1f/js/7834.htm) and why:

> 纸破了 (the paper is broken), because the paper has a visible hole or rip
>
> 鞋破了 (the shoe is worn), usually because you wear through the sole so that there's a hole
>
> 碗打破了 (the bowl is shattered), because the bowl is now in many pieces

Also watch out for words that use `坏` or `破` since, as you may know already, Chinese words cannot be mixed-and-matched by replacing similar characters in them. E.g. you cannot replace the `破` in the word `破裂` with `坏` to get `坏裂`, as Chinese doesn't work that way.

For a bit of etymology which somewhat explains the subtle differences, [坏](http://www.zdic.net/z/17/sw/574F.htm) has the "earth" radical and originally meant "unfired clay", so outward appearance is fine but it's not really "made"; [破](http://www.zdic.net/z/1f/sw/7834.htm) has the "stone" radical and originally meant stones shattering, so there's a visible, obvious breakage.


---

### Answer by username_4 on 2014-02-25. Score: 5

the meanings of 坏 correspond more to the English words "bad"/“rotten”.

好人/坏人 - Good guy/Bad guy
牛奶坏了 - The milk's spoilt / gone bad
一粒老鼠屎，坏了一锅粥 - One bad apple spoils a whole bunch (lit. a drop of mouse poo spoils a pot of congee.=)

破 has less of these negative connotations, and may sometimes even have positive ones in the sense of

突破 "making a breakthrough/breaking new ground"
打破纪录 “breaking a record/setting a new record time"

In every everyday speech/slang, 破 along with 烂 is used as an adjective to mean disapproval, in the same was as crappy/shitty.

这什么破玩意 - what is this crap?
这破电影真难看 - this crappy movie is just awful

Incidentally, "破坏" means destruction, which kinda tells you what the two characters have in common with regards to meaning.

> **Comments:**
> **username_5**: +1 for mouse poo and slang.  

---

### Answer by username_6 on 2014-02-26. Score: 1

- ### 1. for "破"

In fact in china, few people will directly say `手机破了`, but say `手机屏破了` or `手机壳破了`, here `屏` means the screen of the phone, and `壳` means the shell of the phone, because in Chinese, `破了` is often related to things like glass, or something used for packaging, or containers, so you can say: `我的包裹(package)破了`, `我的信封(envelope)破了`, `我的纸箱(carton)破了`, `我的花瓶(vase)破了`, they are both ok.

but, sometimes you can simply use it as `old`, or `outdated,` and so on, because we often use `破` with `旧(old, outdated)` together as `破旧`, here the two characters have the same meaning, one example is: `我的手机很破了`, `我的鞋很破了`, note here I use a character `很`, it means `very`, when you see these two characters used together, maybe someone wants to tell you something he is using is very old or outdated(and one possible reason maybe he doesn't have much money to afford a new one)

- ### 2. for "坏"

literally meaning of `坏了` is `broken`, `doesn't work any more`, if you say `手机坏了`, may be the screen and the shell are both fine but you just can't turn on the phone, tons of reason can cause this.

while there is another meaning of "坏了" --> you can simply understand it as "damn it!", so if something happened in a sudden and you don't know what to do, you would say "坏了!"


---

### Answer by username_7 on 2014-02-25. Score: 1

坏了 = doesn't work / out of order, usually after an objects
for example 电视机坏了
坏了 = very generally refer to some parts of your body impaired. for example 腿坏了 = cripple
坏了！ = exclamation. similar to DAMN it!! 坏了，我忘带钱包了。 damn it! I forgot to bring my wallet.
坏了 = something goes bad/expired 牛奶坏了，不能喝了： the milk is expired, can't drink it.

破了 = broken

破了 = injured 手破了，流血了。 hand is injured and bleeding.


---

### Answer by username_5 on 2014-02-25. Score: 0

Just a side note to the other answers. One way to capture the difference is to look at each one as the resultative element of a compound. For 破, we might find this:

> 他把我的手機打破了 ‘He smashed my cell phone.’

For 壞, this:

> 他我的手機用壞了 ‘He was using my cell phone and now it doesn’t work.’

In both cases the cell phone is broken. But in the first case it’s physically broken, in the second something more subtle happened. 打破了 and 用壞了 sound natural for this reason. I don’t know if 打壞了 and 用破了 are possible compounds or not, but even if possible they would be going against the semantic grain as it were.


---

### Answer by username_8 on 2014-03-04. Score: 0

坏：bad -> roted -> malfunction. Something that is not good internally. NOTE, this does not mean it is **useless**, just mean there are some function that expected to work but actually not.

破：broken -> holes/spots in skin -> old. Something that is not good in the surface.

So, you say 坏手机 for a malfunction mobile, say 破手机 for an old mobile. If a pair of high heels was broken on the heel, you say "高跟鞋坏了", but if some one can see you leaked toes from your leather shoes, "这皮鞋破了"。

BTW: be careful to use the word "破鞋", this means "second hand woman" in a bad sense!


---

