<p>Wikipedia has a pretty thorough overview of the differences: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taiwanese_Mandarin" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taiwanese_Mandarin</a></p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-09-25T07:46:18.867Z
2012-09-25T07:46:18.867Z
Claw
<p>According to <a href="http://www.gov.cn/jrzg/2012-08/13/content_2203236.htm" rel="nofollow noreferrer" title="Mainland China &amp; Taiwan cooperate to edit a dictionary called &lt;&lt;两岸常用词典(Commonly Used Words in both Mainland China &amp; Taiwan)&gt;&gt;">An article on Chinese Government Official Website</a></p>

<p>The differences of word usage may be explained like:</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>“机车”在大陆一般指“用来牵引列车车厢的动力车，即火车头”，在台湾则指摩托车</p>
</blockquote>

<p>To translate in English, "机车" in Mandarin means locomotive, while "机车" in Taiwan means motorcycle.</p>

<p>one can buy a paper-based dictionary at amazon dot cn. </p>

<p><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/vZdLh.jpg" alt="两岸常用词典">
<img src="https://i.sstatic.net/n4GHR.jpg" alt="两岸现代汉语常用词典"></p>

<p>I am not sure I can post urls to a commercial site, so please perform a search by yourself on amazon dot cn with keyword: 两岸常用词典. The search had returned at least 3 results for me on 2012/09/26.</p>

<p>And according to the article:</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>据悉，《两岸常用词典》网络版已于２月在两岸共建的“中华语文知识库”网站上开通</p>
</blockquote>

<p>one can also <a href="http://chinese-linguipedia.org/clk/index.php" rel="nofollow noreferrer" title="中華語文知識庫(Chinese Language Knowledge Base)">access Taiwan-version dictionary online</a> or <a href="http://www.zhonghuayuwen.org/dictquery.aspx?i=15526" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Mandarin-version dictionary online</a>
now. :)</p>

<p>If you try to look for "硬碟(Taiwan Usage)", it will also show you "硬盘/硬磁盘(Mandarin Usage)". </p>

<p><a href="http://chinese-linguipedia.org/clk/index.php/search/%E7%A1%AC%E7%A2%9F" rel="nofollow noreferrer" title="硬碟 in Chinese Language Knowledge Base">Please try it for yourself!</a></p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-09-25T09:24:50.117Z
2012-09-26T02:34:33.193Z
2012-09-26T02:34:33.193Z
pimgeek
<p>A reference request. </p>

<p>Is there any good source  of the differences word choice/meaning between Taiwan and Mainland Chinese? </p>

<p>Not asking about Chinese Characters, but usage.  </p>

<p>Spain have different word choice or even different words for the same thing, than in Mexico for example. </p>

<mandarin><usage><reference-materials>
Taiwanese Mandarin vs Mainland Mandarin
# Taiwanese Mandarin vs Mainland Mandarin

(Asked by: username_0 on 2012-09-25)

A reference request.

Is there any good source of the differences word choice/meaning between Taiwan and Mainland Chinese?

Not asking about Chinese Characters, but usage.

Spain have different word choice or even different words for the same thing, than in Mexico for example.

**Tags:** mandarin, usage, reference-materials


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## 2 answers

### Answer by username_2 on 2012-09-25. Score: 5 | Accepted answer

According to [An article on Chinese Government Official Website](http://www.gov.cn/jrzg/2012-08/13/content_2203236.htm "Mainland China & Taiwan cooperate to edit a dictionary called <<两岸常用词典(Commonly Used Words in both Mainland China & Taiwan)>>")

The differences of word usage may be explained like:

> “机车”在大陆一般指“用来牵引列车车厢的动力车，即火车头”，在台湾则指摩托车

To translate in English, "机车" in Mandarin means locomotive, while "机车" in Taiwan means motorcycle.

one can buy a paper-based dictionary at amazon dot cn.

![两岸常用词典](https://i.sstatic.net/vZdLh.jpg)
![两岸现代汉语常用词典](https://i.sstatic.net/n4GHR.jpg)

I am not sure I can post urls to a commercial site, so please perform a search by yourself on amazon dot cn with keyword: 两岸常用词典. The search had returned at least 3 results for me on 2012/09/26.

And according to the article:

> 据悉，《两岸常用词典》网络版已于２月在两岸共建的“中华语文知识库”网站上开通

one can also [access Taiwan-version dictionary online](http://chinese-linguipedia.org/clk/index.php "中華語文知識庫(Chinese Language Knowledge Base)") or [Mandarin-version dictionary online](http://www.zhonghuayuwen.org/dictquery.aspx?i=15526)
now. :)

If you try to look for "硬碟(Taiwan Usage)", it will also show you "硬盘/硬磁盘(Mandarin Usage)".

[Please try it for yourself!](http://chinese-linguipedia.org/clk/index.php/search/%E7%A1%AC%E7%A2%9F "硬碟 in Chinese Language Knowledge Base")


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### Answer by username_1 on 2012-09-25. Score: 1

Wikipedia has a pretty thorough overview of the differences: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taiwanese_Mandarin>


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