Welcome to our Chinese learning series – Ask Litao. In each video of this new series, we’re going to answer your questions about learning Chinese.

Today’s question is from a Brazilian student, in the email she asked, “会(huì) and 能(néng) can both mean ‘can’ or ‘be able to’. What’s the difference between them?”

会(huì) can be often used to indicate an ability that you acquired the skill as a result of study, not because you were born with it.
For example,
他会说汉语。
Tā huì shuō Hànyǔ.
He can speak Chinese.
Because speaking a language is the skill that you acquired through studying.

奶奶会用电脑。
Nǎinai huì yòng diànnǎo.
Grandma can use computer.
Grandma knows how to use computer, because she must have studied it.

能(néng) can be used to express that you have temporarily lost or recovered an ability.
For example,
我的脚很疼，不能走路。
Wǒ de jiǎo hěn téng, bù néng zǒulù.
My feet hurt so much, I cannot walk.
The reason I can’t walk is the pain of my feet, not because I don’t know how to walk. I have lost the walking ability just temporarily.

他的病好了，能打篮球了。
Tā de bìng hǎo le, néng dǎ lánqiú le.
He recovered from illness, now he can play basketball.
In this case, we know that after he got sick, he couldn’t play basketball, but now he is well, so he can go back to play basketball again.
In this kind of situations, you cannot replace 能(néng) with 会(huì)。

We can also use 能(néng) to express some kind of efficiency.
For example,
她一分钟能打两百个汉字。
Tā yī fēnzhōng néng dǎ liǎngbǎi gè Hànzì.
She can type two hundred characters a minute.

我一次能游一千米。
Wǒ yī cì néng yóu yīqiān mǐ.
I can swim one kilometer at a time.
We use 能(néng) here to talk about efficiency, 会(huì) cannot be used for this situation.

很(hěn) / 真(zhēn) + 会(huì)
We put an adverb such as 很(hěn) or 真(zhēn) before 会(huì) to indicate someone’s ability to do something is at a high level, it can be translated into “to be good at”.
For example,
你很会吃。
Nǐ hěn huì chī.
You are good at eating food.
Actually we want to say that you know a lot about food, and enjoy different kinds of food, you are a foodie.

But if we say
你很能吃。
Nǐ hěn néng chī.
The meaning is completely different, which means that you can eat a lot.
能(néng) here is used to emphasize quantity or amount.

Two more examples:
他真会说。
Tā zhēn huì shuō.
It means he really know how to speak or talk, he has good skills of speaking.
他真能说。
Tā zhēn néng shuō.
It emphasizes that he really can talk a lot, sometimes it’s too much, or he can’t stop talking.

Here is a question for you. If you want to say:
I am not feeling comfortable today, so I can’t play soccer.
我今天不舒服，所以不__踢足球。
Wǒ jīntiān bù shūfu, suǒyǐ bù __ tī zúqiú.
Which one should be filled in the blank, 会(huì) or 能(néng)？Please leave your answer in comments.

会(huì) and 能(néng) can both also be used to express possibility, we’re going to learn it in our future lessons.

Welcome to our Chinese learning series – Ask Litao. In each video of this new series, we’re going to answer your questions about learning Chinese.

Today’s question is from a Brazilian student, in the email she asked, “会(huì) and 能(néng) can both mean ‘can’ or ‘be able to’. What’s the difference between them?”

会(huì) can be often used to indicate an ability that you acquired the skill as a result of study, not because you were born with it.
For example,
他会说汉语。
Tā huì shuō Hànyǔ.
He can speak Chinese.
Because speaking a language is the skill that you acquired through studying.

奶奶会用电脑。
Nǎinai huì yòng diànnǎo.
Grandma can use computer.
Grandma knows how to use computer, because she must have studied it.

能(néng) can be used to express that you have temporarily lost or recovered an ability.
For example,
我的脚很疼，不能走路。
Wǒ de jiǎo hěn téng, bù néng zǒulù.
My feet hurt so much, I cannot walk.
The reason I can’t walk is the pain of my feet, not because I don’t know how to walk. I have lost the walking ability just temporarily.

他的病好了，能打篮球了。
Tā de bìng hǎo le, néng dǎ lánqiú le.
He recovered from illness, now he can play basketball.
In this case, we know that after he got sick, he couldn’t play basketball, but now he is well, so he can go back to play basketball again.
In this kind of situations, you cannot replace 能(néng) with 会(huì)。

We can also use 能(néng) to express some kind of efficiency.
For example,
她一分钟能打两百个汉字。
Tā yī fēnzhōng néng dǎ liǎngbǎi gè Hànzì.
She can type two hundred characters a minute.

我一次能游一千米。
Wǒ yī cì néng yóu yīqiān mǐ.
I can swim one kilometer at a time.
We use 能(néng) here to talk about efficiency, 会(huì) cannot be used for this situation.

很(hěn) / 真(zhēn) + 会(huì)
We put an adverb such as 很(hěn) or 真(zhēn) before 会(huì) to indicate someone’s ability to do something is at a high level, it can be translated into “to be good at”.
For example,
你很会吃。
Nǐ hěn huì chī.
You are good at eating food.
Actually we want to say that you know a lot about food, and enjoy different kinds of food, you are a foodie.

But if we say
你很能吃。
Nǐ hěn néng chī.
The meaning is completely different, which means that you can eat a lot.
能(néng) here is used to emphasize quantity or amount.

Two more examples:
他真会说。
Tā zhēn huì shuō.
It means he really know how to speak or talk, he has good skills of speaking.
他真能说。
Tā zhēn néng shuō.
It emphasizes that he really can talk a lot, sometimes it’s too much, or he can’t stop talking.

Here is a question for you. If you want to say:
I am not feeling comfortable today, so I can’t play soccer.
我今天不舒服，所以不__踢足球。
Wǒ jīntiān bù shūfu, suǒyǐ bù __ tī zúqiú.
Which one should be filled in the blank, 会(huì) or 能(néng)？Please leave your answer in comments.

会(huì) and 能(néng) can both also be used to express possibility, we’re going to learn it in our future lessons.