Comparing "lijie" and "liaojie"

理解 and 了解 both mean “understand” or “comprehend” a person or the way something is. Yet, both have distinct meanings, for example 理解 means after much thought and deliberation to grasp an understanding of a principle, a reason, material, a person’s deep inner thoughts or feelings, and 了解 means “to know about”, “to know of”, “to think about” a person or concept. As well, 了解 can mean “to get to know” or “to find out about” or “to become aware of how something will work out“

A2HSK2ASV4567

	理解 (lǐjiě)	了解 (liǎojiě)
Meaning	to understand deeply	to know about, to know of
Part of Speech	verb	verb
Formality	formal	flexible

:Yes

To say to “understand” or “comprehend” a person or the way something is both 了解 and 理解 can be used.

Common Phrases

In the following examples both 了解 and 理解 can be used.

• 很～你
• 不～你
• 不太～
• 互相～

To describe a situation in which after much thought and deliberation you grasp an understanding of a principle, a reason, material, a person’s deep inner thoughts or feelings use 理解

Common Phrases

• 不能理解
• 理解不了
• 理解力
• 理解错了
• 表示理解

To describe a situation which uses “to get to know” or “to find out about” “to become aware of how something will work out“ (think “ahh… got you!”) about a condition or a situation use 了解.

Common Phrases

• 了解情况
• 了解一下
• 了解了解