<p>I am a Taiwanese, we definitely say 上面／下面, other than 上邊／下邊, and I even never hear anyone say 上邊／下邊 in Taiwan, &quot;邊&quot; is more like the &quot;side&quot; or &quot;edge&quot;. Like 左邊／右邊, means &quot;left/right side&quot;. &quot;桌子邊緣&quot; is &quot;the edge of the table&quot;.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-02-07T17:06:29.320Z
2023-02-07T17:06:29.320Z
Jung
<p>While you may hear some people say &quot;桌子上/下邊&quot;, &quot;桌子上/下面&quot; is still the formal, and correct, way to say &quot;on/under the table&quot;. The former speaking was mainly used by a small group of people that migrated from mainland China after 1949.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-01-30T03:57:03.793Z
2023-01-30T03:57:03.793Z
r13
<p>I am not as familiar with taiwan itself, so I can't fully comment on spoken daily taiwan mandarin.</p>
<p>That out of the way, from reading taiwan texts I usually see 面, very rarely 邊。 I myself learned chinese from a (not Taiwanese) area where 邊 is very common and both are seen frequently.  So any individual person may use them based on life experiences.  Other languages the speaker knows, like hokkien, could play influence too.</p>
<p>p.s. this answer is based on the times when the two are interchangeable, there may be rare times where the very subtle difference between them actually matters-- generally they are used interchangeably.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-01-30T23:38:11.240Z
2023-01-30T23:38:11.240Z
zagrycha
<p>If it wasn't obvious from my usage of traditional characters, I'm learning Taiwan Standard Mandarin. While studying, I learned that ～面 and ～邊 are largely interchangeable in place words, and was wondering which is more common in Taiwan.</p>

<usage><taiwan>
Is ～面(上面，下面) more common than ～邊(上邊，下邊) in Taiwan?
# Is ～面(上面，下面) more common than ～邊(上邊，下邊) in Taiwan?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2023-01-30)

If it wasn't obvious from my usage of traditional characters, I'm learning Taiwan Standard Mandarin. While studying, I learned that ～面 and ～邊 are largely interchangeable in place words, and was wondering which is more common in Taiwan.

**Tags:** usage, taiwan


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## 3 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2023-02-07. Score: 2 | Accepted answer

I am a Taiwanese, we definitely say 上面／下面, other than 上邊／下邊, and I even never hear anyone say 上邊／下邊 in Taiwan, "邊" is more like the "side" or "edge". Like 左邊／右邊, means "left/right side". "桌子邊緣" is "the edge of the table".


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### Answer by username_2 on 2023-01-30. Score: 1

While you may hear some people say "桌子上/下邊", "桌子上/下面" is still the formal, and correct, way to say "on/under the table". The former speaking was mainly used by a small group of people that migrated from mainland China after 1949.


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### Answer by username_3 on 2023-01-30. Score: 1

I am not as familiar with taiwan itself, so I can't fully comment on spoken daily taiwan mandarin.

That out of the way, from reading taiwan texts I usually see 面, very rarely 邊。 I myself learned chinese from a (not Taiwanese) area where 邊 is very common and both are seen frequently. So any individual person may use them based on life experiences. Other languages the speaker knows, like hokkien, could play influence too.

p.s. this answer is based on the times when the two are interchangeable, there may be rare times where the very subtle difference between them actually matters-- generally they are used interchangeably.


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