Home/Taiwanese Mandarin/All pairs/原子筆 vs 圆珠笔
ballpoint pen · Different wording
Different wording The two terms share 笔 in their simplified forms but are different words. In Taiwan the standard term is 原子筆; on the Mainland it is 圆珠笔 - both point at “ballpoint pen”.
Taiwan’s Ministry of Education dictionaries record 圓珠筆 for this concept. The Mainland standard is among them - the difference is which form each side makes the default.
原子筆 is L4 vocabulary on the TOCFL 华语八千词 list; 圆珠笔 is HSK 6 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 | 原子筆 | 圆珠笔 |
| Reading | ㄩㄢˊ ㄗˇ ㄅㄧˇ yuán zǐ bǐ | yuán zhū bǐ ㄩㄢˊ ㄓㄨ ㄅㄧˇ |
| Senses | (Tw, HK) ballpoint pen | ballpoint pen |
| Syllabus | TOCFL L4 | HSK 6 |
| MOE records | 圓珠筆 | |
| Dictionary | entry → | entry → |
| Audio | ||
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