<p>欸 and 诶 are both modal word and only used to express some meaningless sound in a dialogue. They sound same, they have no meaning, and usually we don't talk about their difference.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-03-20T13:34:01.610Z
2024-03-20T13:34:01.610Z
HXSKDB
<p>欸 is old Chinese and it is replaced and now more commonly written as the character 唉. It’s colloquially used in many places in different domains - be it dialogues of old Chinese drama or chinese games or even characters in it. Fun fact: Chinese language has more than 70,000 characters out of which only 20,000-30,000 is taught and used in everyday Chinese (Spoken and written) language. AFAIK, these are just exclamation sounds and do not necessarily have any meanings. Some other examples are 嗯, 哇 and so on.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-03-17T16:35:33.340Z
No, you are wrong. 唉 stands for sigh, for example, 「唉，我又考砸了」. But 欸 is used as 「欸，你怎么在这」「好欸」.
Soriak
CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-03-17T16:19:22.207Z
2024-03-17T16:19:22.207Z
Naveed Ahmed
<p>Both words are the same type - &quot;interjection/exclamation; they share the same pronunciations ([ēi],[éi],[ěi],[èi]) with similar uses but the exceptions below:</p>
<ul>
<li><p><a href="https://www.zdic.net/hans/%E6%AC%B8" rel="nofollow noreferrer">欸</a>[ǎi] - 欸乃 is an Onomatopoeia, that phonetically imitates the sound of skulling the boat with a long oar (指摇橹声).</p>
</li>
<li><p><a href="https://www.zdic.net/hans/%E8%AF%B6" rel="nofollow noreferrer">诶</a>[xī] - 1. used when expressing negative feelings about an odious event/person. 2. used with a forced smile.</p>
</li>
</ul>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-03-18T02:20:36.123Z
2024-03-18T02:20:36.123Z
r13
<p>The first time I notice the word 欸 is in a game (Genshin Impact) with 欸嘿. Then I find another word 诶, which is not that so common vs 欸. So what is the difference between them?</p>

<difference>
What is the difference between 「欸」 and 「诶」?
# What is the difference between 「欸」 and 「诶」?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2024-03-17)

The first time I notice the word 欸 is in a game (Genshin Impact) with 欸嘿. Then I find another word 诶, which is not that so common vs 欸. So what is the difference between them?

**Tags:** difference


---

## 3 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2024-03-20. Score: -1 | Accepted answer

欸 and 诶 are both modal word and only used to express some meaningless sound in a dialogue. They sound same, they have no meaning, and usually we don't talk about their difference.


---

### Answer by username_2 on 2024-03-17. Score: 0

欸 is old Chinese and it is replaced and now more commonly written as the character 唉. It’s colloquially used in many places in different domains - be it dialogues of old Chinese drama or chinese games or even characters in it. Fun fact: Chinese language has more than 70,000 characters out of which only 20,000-30,000 is taught and used in everyday Chinese (Spoken and written) language. AFAIK, these are just exclamation sounds and do not necessarily have any meanings. Some other examples are 嗯, 哇 and so on.

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: No, you are wrong. 唉 stands for sigh, for example, 「唉，我又考砸了」. But 欸 is used as 「欸，你怎么在这」「好欸」.  

---

### Answer by username_3 on 2024-03-18. Score: 0

Both words are the same type - "interjection/exclamation; they share the same pronunciations ([ēi],[éi],[ěi],[èi]) with similar uses but the exceptions below:

* [欸](https://www.zdic.net/hans/%E6%AC%B8)[ǎi] - 欸乃 is an Onomatopoeia, that phonetically imitates the sound of skulling the boat with a long oar (指摇橹声).
* [诶](https://www.zdic.net/hans/%E8%AF%B6)[xī] - 1. used when expressing negative feelings about an odious event/person. 2. used with a forced smile.


---

