Home/Taiwanese Mandarin/All pairs/國小 vs 小学
elementary school · Different wording
Different wording The two terms share 小 in their simplified forms but are different words. In Taiwan the standard term is 國小; on the Mainland it is 小学 - both point at “elementary school”.
Taiwan’s Ministry of Education dictionaries record 小學 for this concept. The Mainland standard is among them - the difference is which form each side makes the default.
國小 is L2 vocabulary on the TOCFL 华语八千词 list; 小学 is HSK 1 vocabulary on the HSK 3.0 list.
Pair source: LinZi’s curated MOE-vs-HSK comparison table.
| Taiwan · 台灣 | Mainland · 大陆 | |
|---|---|---|
| Written form | 國小 | 小学 |
| Reading | ㄍㄨㄛˊ ㄒㄧㄠˇ guó xiǎo | xiǎo xué ㄒㄧㄠˇ ㄒㄩㄝˊ |
| Senses | elementary school (Tw); abbr. for 國民小學|国民小学 (國民小學|国民小学 · elementary school (Tw)) | elementary school; primary school |
| Syllabus | TOCFL L2 | HSK 1 |
| MOE records | 小學 | |
| Dictionary | entry → | entry → |
| Audio | ||
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