<p>I found that at least some Mandarin speakers (I don't know about other dialects of Chinese) use the word 脚 loosely. For example, if they say "我的脚不舒服" it might actually mean their leg doesn't feel good rather than their foot doesn't feel good. However, they wouldn't say "我的腿不舒服" to mean their foot is uncomfortable. So, 脚 seems to be a more general term and 腿 a more specific term.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-02-15T00:35:52.737Z
I agree. In fact, when I said 'some dialects of Chinese', I meant 'some dialects of Mandarin in its widest sense'. Unfortunately it's hard to cover all Mandarin dialects with one word in Chinese. 北方话 would be good, except that doesn't cover Sichuan! Saying 'dialects of Chinese' includes totally different things like Cantonese and Hokkienese, etc. So, yes, I agree with you that some 'Mandarin' speakers do tend to use 腳 loosely.
Bathrobe
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-02-14T09:32:01.977Z
2012-02-14T09:32:01.977Z
Dan
<p>脚 is 'foot', 腿 is 'leg', but in some dialects of Chinese 脚 is used for both foot and leg (I know this is the case in some Sichuan dialects).</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-02-14T08:40:10.243Z
2012-02-14T08:40:10.243Z
Bathrobe
<p>According to CC-CEDICT, this means both "foot" and "leg". How does one know when this word refers to either foot or leg? It is difficult to discern when CC-CEDICT does not include sample sentences.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-02-14T05:51:22.187Z
It's foot. leg is 腿. (funny, I couldn't post a answer, an error was reported, but add a comment is fine)
Fivesheep
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-02-14T09:02:36.987Z
MDBG can give example sentences
jsj
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-02-14T17:00:45.123Z
Not very constructive, but it's not uncommon in many languages to name leg and foot with same word.
Petruza
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-02-14T21:21:34.873Z
I'm a native Chinese speaker and I have never seen this word before in my life! I'm glad to learn it here. Thank you for that. Just out of curiosity, where did you see this?
Laguna
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-02-15T00:38:35.133Z
Hard to believe you've never seen it. Could it just be the difference between 脚 (simplified) and 腳 (traditional)?
Bathrobe
<mandarin>
Meaning of the word 腳
# Meaning of the word 腳

(Asked by: username_0 on 2012-02-14)

According to CC-CEDICT, this means both "foot" and "leg". How does one know when this word refers to either foot or leg? It is difficult to discern when CC-CEDICT does not include sample sentences.

**Tags:** mandarin

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: It's foot. leg is 腿. (funny, I couldn't post a answer, an error was reported, but add a comment is fine)  
> **username_2**: MDBG can give example sentences  
> **username_3**: Not very constructive, but it's not uncommon in many languages to name leg and foot with same word.  
> **username_4**: I'm a native Chinese speaker and I have never seen this word before in my life! I'm glad to learn it here. Thank you for that. Just out of curiosity, where did you see this?  
> **username_5**: Hard to believe you've never seen it. Could it just be the difference between 脚 (simplified) and 腳 (traditional)?  

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## 2 answers

### Answer by username_5 on 2012-02-14. Score: 3 | Accepted answer

脚 is 'foot', 腿 is 'leg', but in some dialects of Chinese 脚 is used for both foot and leg (I know this is the case in some Sichuan dialects).


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### Answer by username_6 on 2012-02-14. Score: 1

I found that at least some Mandarin speakers (I don't know about other dialects of Chinese) use the word 脚 loosely. For example, if they say "我的脚不舒服" it might actually mean their leg doesn't feel good rather than their foot doesn't feel good. However, they wouldn't say "我的腿不舒服" to mean their foot is uncomfortable. So, 脚 seems to be a more general term and 腿 a more specific term.

> **Comments:**
> **username_5**: I agree. In fact, when I said 'some dialects of Chinese', I meant 'some dialects of Mandarin in its widest sense'. Unfortunately it's hard to cover all Mandarin dialects with one word in Chinese. 北方话 would be good, except that doesn't cover Sichuan! Saying 'dialects of Chinese' includes totally different things like Cantonese and Hokkienese, etc. So, yes, I agree with you that some 'Mandarin' speakers do tend to use 腳 loosely.  

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