The opposite of "chabuduo" is "cha hen duo"

You might be used to thinking of 差不多 (chàbùduō) as a single word, and that's totally OK. But what if you want to negate the whole idea of rough equivalency, you need to think of it as a phrase and use 差很多 (chà hěn duō). Not surprisingly, it's a little less versatile than 差不多 (chàbùduō).

Structure

When 差不多 (chàbùduō) is a predicate, it literally means "the difference is not much." The opposite, then, would be 差很多 (chà hěn duō), which literally means "the difference is very great." Less literally, if 差不多 (chàbùduō) means "more or less the same," then 差很多 (chà hěn duō) means "not the same at all" or "very different."

Subj. + 差 很 多

A + 跟 / 和 + B + 差很多

Examples

• 这 两 家 店 的 东西 价格 差 很 多 。Zhè liǎng jiā diàn de dōngxi jiàgé chà hěn duō.There is a big difference in price between these two shops.
• 我 和 我男朋友 的 年龄 差 很 多 。 Wǒ hé wǒ nánpéngyou de niánlíng chà hěn duō.There is a big difference between my age and my boyfriend's age.
• 中国 文化 和 西方 文化 差 很 多 。 Zhōngguó wénhuà hé xīfāngwénhuà chà hěn duō.Chinese culture and western culture are quite different.
• 我 的 收入 跟 我老板 的 收入 差 很 多 。Wǒ de shōurù gēn wǒlǎobǎn de shōurù chà hěn duō.There is a huge difference between my income and my boss'.
• 这 两 个 词 的 意思 差不多，但是 用法 差 很 多 。Zhè liǎng gè cí de yìsi chàbùduō, dànshì yòngfǎ chà hěn duō.The meanings of these two words are basically the same, but their usages are very different.

See also

• Expressing "almost" using "chadian mei"
• Expressing "almost" using "chadian"
• "Nearly" with "jihu"

Sources and further reading

Books

• 现代汉语八百词（增订本） (p. 111) →buy
• Integrated Chinese: Level 2, Part 1 (pp. 54-5) →buy
• Basic Patterns of Chinese Grammar (p. 116) →buy

Dictionaries

• 现代汉语词典（第5版） (p. 145) →buy

HSK4