When One Simplified Character Is Two Traditional
Why one Simplified character can map to two or three Traditional ones, such as 发 to 發 or 髮 and 后 to 後 or 后, with a table of the merges that matter most.
Some Simplified characters stand for two or three different Traditional characters. 发 can be 發 (to send out) or 髮 (hair). 后 can be 後 (behind, after) or 后 (queen). 干 can be 乾 (dry), 幹 (to do) or 干 (to interfere). The merge goes one way: Simplified to Traditional is a choice you have to make, and Traditional to Simplified is nearly always automatic. This is why converting Simplified text to Traditional goes wrong in predictable places.
Everything below follows Taiwan MOE usage. Readings and meanings were checked against the MOE 重編國語辭典修訂本 through its online mirror, moedict.tw. Where the MOE dictionary lists one character as a variant of another, the table says so.
The merges that matter most
The same Simplified character is on the left, the Traditional characters it can become are in the middle, and the words you will most often meet are on the right.
| Simplified | Traditional | Meaning and reading | Common words |
|---|---|---|---|
| 发 | 發 | to send out, to start (fā, ㄈㄚ) | 發現 (fāxiàn), 發財 (fācái) |
| 髮 | hair (fǎ, ㄈㄚˇ) | 頭髮 (tóufǎ), 髮型 (fǎxíng) | |
| 后 | 後 | behind, after (hòu, ㄏㄡˋ) | 以後 (yǐhòu), 後來 (hòulái), 後面 (hòumiàn) |
| 后 | queen (hòu, ㄏㄡˋ) | 皇后 (huánghòu), 王后 (wánghòu) | |
| 干 | 乾 | dry (gān, ㄍㄢ) | 乾淨 (gānjìng), 餅乾 (bǐnggān), 乾杯 (gānbēi) |
| 幹 | to do; trunk; main (gàn, ㄍㄢˋ) | 幹部 (gànbù), 能幹 (nénggàn), 樹幹 (shùgàn) | |
| 干 | shield; to interfere (gān, ㄍㄢ) | 干擾 (gānrǎo), 干涉 (gānshè), 若干 (ruògān) | |
| 面 | 面 | face, side, surface (miàn, ㄇㄧㄢˋ) | 見面 (jiànmiàn), 面試 (miànshì) |
| 麵 | noodles, flour (miàn, ㄇㄧㄢˋ) | 麵包 (miànbāo), 麵條 (miàntiáo) | |
| 复 | 復 | to return, to restore (fù, ㄈㄨˋ) | 恢復 (huīfù) |
| 複 | layered, to repeat (fù, ㄈㄨˋ) | 複習 (fùxí), 複雜 (fùzá), 重複 (chóngfù) | |
| 覆 | to reply; to overturn, to cover (fù, ㄈㄨˋ) | 回覆 (huífù), 答覆 (dáfù); 覆蓋 (fùgài) keeps 覆 in Simplified too | |
| 台 | 臺 | platform, stage; Taiwan (tái, ㄊㄞˊ) | 臺灣 (Táiwān), 臺中 (Táizhōng) |
| 檯 | table, counter (tái, ㄊㄞˊ) | 檯燈 (táidēng), 櫃檯 (guìtái) | |
| 颱 | typhoon (tái, ㄊㄞˊ) | 颱風 (táifēng) | |
| 只 | 只 | only (zhǐ, ㄓˇ) | 只有 (zhǐyǒu) |
| 隻 | measure word for animals (zhī, ㄓ) | 一隻貓 (yì zhī māo) | |
| 表 | 表 | to show; table, chart (biǎo, ㄅㄧㄠˇ) | 表示 (biǎoshì) |
| 錶 | watch (biǎo, ㄅㄧㄠˇ) | 手錶 (shǒubiǎo) | |
| 制 | 制 | system, rule (zhì, ㄓˋ) | 制度 (zhìdù) |
| 製 | to make (zhì, ㄓˋ) | 製造 (zhìzào) | |
| 历 | 歷 | to pass through (lì, ㄌㄧˋ) | 歷史 (lìshǐ) |
| 曆 | calendar (lì, ㄌㄧˋ) | 日曆 (rìlì) | |
| 系 | 系 | system, department (xì, ㄒㄧˋ) | 系統 (xìtǒng) |
| 係 | to be related (xì, ㄒㄧˋ) | 關係 (guānxì) | |
| 繫 | to connect, to link (xì; jì when tying, as in 繫鞋帶) | 聯繫 (liánxì) | |
| 钟 | 鐘 | bell, clock (zhōng, ㄓㄨㄥ) | 時鐘 (shízhōng), 鬧鐘 (nàozhōng) |
| 鍾 | to gather; a surname (zhōng, ㄓㄨㄥ) | 鍾情 (zhōngqíng) |
The MOE dictionary treats a few of these pairs loosely. Its entry for 錶 says it can also be written 表, its entry for 制 includes the sense “to make” that 製 carries, and its entry for 只 (zhī) lists it as the same as 隻 for animals. For learning, use 錶, 製 and 隻 for those senses, because they keep the meanings apart. Three other details in the table deserve a longer note.
乾, 幹 and 干
This is the three-way merge that surprises learners most. 乾淨 (clean), 幹部 (cadre, officer) and 干擾 (interference) all share one Simplified character, 干, and have three separate Traditional characters. The readings help: 乾 is gān (and qián in the Yijing sense, 乾坤), 幹 is gàn, and 干 is gān.
If you convert by hand, ask what the word means first. Dry, clean, empty a glass: 乾. Dried foods are written 干 in the MOE dictionary, as in 豆干 (dòugān, pressed tofu). Do, work, main, trunk: 幹. Shield, interfere, a certain number, the Heavenly Stems (天干): 干. On its own, 幹 is also a common swear word in Taiwan, so learn it in set words such as 能幹, 幹部 and the everyday 幹嘛 (gànmá, “what are you doing”; the MOE dictionary writes it 幹麼).
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髮 and 發
The two are easy to tell apart in sound. The MOE reading of 髮 is fǎ (ㄈㄚˇ), third tone, and 發 is fā (ㄈㄚ), first tone. In conversion errors, 頭髮 turns into 頭發, so a text about haircuts or washing your hair is where a faulty converter shows itself first. 髮 is written with the hair radical 髟, which is a useful hook: if the word has to do with hair, look for 髟.
後 and 后
後 covers behind and after and is the one you will write nearly every time. 后 is reserved for a queen or an empress (皇后, 王后) and for a few surnames. The MOE entry for 后 also lists a “later in time” sense, so you may meet it in names or older texts. The safe habit for modern Taiwan usage is 後 for every time and place word.
Why this happens
Mainland simplification reduced the number of characters in use in part by merging characters that sound the same. Several pairs and triples were combined this way. Traditional Chinese, as used in Taiwan, kept the older distinctions, and Taiwan’s MOE standard forms list each as a separate character. The wider picture of how Simplified characters were built is in the history of simplification.
Merging changes what a reader must do. A Simplified reader of 头发 sees one word. A Traditional reader sees 頭髮 and the 髟 component tells them the topic before reading the sound.
How converters cope, and where they do not
Basic character-by-character converters map 发 to 發 every time. Better ones, such as the open-source OpenCC project, use word-level dictionaries, which is how 头发 can come out as 頭髮. OpenCC also has Taiwan-specific settings. Even so, a converter works from word lists, and a word missing from the list falls back to a default. Expect mistakes in rare words, personal names, and fragments of sentences.
If you convert text for study, check these before you save it to a deck:
- Any 發 next to a hair word, and any 後 or 后 in a name or a queen title.
- 乾 and 幹 around 乾淨, 餅乾 and 幹部.
- 麵 and 面 in food words such as 麵包, 麵條 and 牛肉麵.
- 復, 複 and 覆 in words about repeating, replying or covering.
- 臺 and 台: formal Taiwan publications and 新臺幣 use 臺, and the longer article on Traditional character variants explains when 台 is accepted.
A rule of thumb for learners switching from Simplified
If you know Simplified already, learn each merged character through a few words. Learn 發現, 頭髮 and 以後 as whole words, because the word tells you which character it is. After a few dozen words, the pattern is strong enough to guess new ones. The guide to switching from Simplified to Traditional has a longer plan, and Traditional vs Simplified Chinese explains the wider differences.
A few more pairs you will meet
- 雲 (yún, cloud) and 云 (yún, to say, mostly in 云云): Simplified 云 stands for both. Write 雲 for clouds, as in 白雲.
- 穀 (gǔ, grain) and 谷 (gǔ, valley): 穀物 and 山谷. Simplified 谷 covers both.
- 獲 (huò, to obtain) and 穫 (huò, to harvest): 獲得 and 收穫. Simplified 获 covers both.
- 餘 (yú, remaining) and 余 (yú, I, or a surname): 剩餘, with 余 for names. Simplified 余 covers both.
- 徵 (zhēng, to levy, to seek) and 征 (zhēng, to march, to campaign): 徵求 and 征服. Simplified 征 covers both.
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