So many pronunciations, so little time

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Last week we looked at three common characters that have multiple pronunciations and multiple meanings -- 的, 得, and 地. This week we're going to continue into the murky, shady world of 多音字 (duōyīnzì), or characters that have more than one pronunciation (and more than one meaning). We won't be able to go over all of them (there aren't that many of them, but there are enough that we can't write about all of them in a single newsletter!), but we'll try to touch on some of the most common ones.

还 (hái) and 还 (huán)

还, pronounced hái and meaning "still," is one of the earliest characters learned by students of Chinese. However, it also frequently appears with the pronunciation huán, where it means "to return," both in the sense of returning something that has been given to you, and returning to a place or condition.
One easy way to tell the difference between these two is that 还 (hái) is generally found either alone or in a phrase (like 还是 or 还不错), whereas when 还 is found as a component in a word it is generally pronounced huán.

为 (wéi) and 为 (wèi)

The two flavors of 为 can be maddening, as they differ only in tone but carry different meanings, so if you're not listening carefully it can be quite hard to tell the difference between the two.
The rule is that 为 is only pronounced wèi when it means "for" or "on account of," and in certain words (specifically: 为了 (wèile), 为着 (wèizhe), 为什么 (wèishenme), and 因为 (yīnwèi)), and in all other cases 为 is pronounced wéi. You'll most often encounter this second tone pronunciation in words that mean "to be," "to become," or related concepts, such as 成为 (chéngwéi) and 认为 (rènwéi).
For a little more talk about 为 (and 为了), please check out our recent Qing Wen episode on the topic.

重 (zhòng) and 重 (chóng)

Unlike the two different 为s, 重 (zhòng), meaning "heavy," and 重 (chóng), meaning "again," are distinct enough that they're pretty easy to keep straight. Mostly it confuses elementary students when it takes its chóng form, because it is mostly (and first) encountered as zhòng, and thus causes some serious double-takes when first encountered in force. Compounds containing 重 (zhòng) greatly outnumber 重 (chóng), though 重新 (chóngxīn, again; anew; afresh) and 重复 (chóngfù, to repeat) are common enough that you should know them if you don't already.

行 (xíng) and 行 (háng)

行 is a pretty cool character. As xíng, it can both mean "to be acceptable" and to move or to travel (such as the word bicycle, 自行车 (zìxíngchē) -- self move vehicle, or a vehicle that you yourself can move). As 行 (háng), though, it takes one a totally different meaning, sometimes meaning "a line" (i.e., a line of text), but more often meaning "shop" or "business" (as in bank, 银行 (yínháng) -- a store/shop for silver).
Interestingly, in many dialects (such as Cantonese) two different 行s are pronounced either identically or much more similarly than they are in Mandarin.

长 (cháng) and 长 (zhǎng)

长 (cháng) and 长 (zhǎng) are a pair that still throw me sometimes when I'm skimming text. The first one you'll likely encounter is 长 (cháng), which means "long," but 长 (zhǎng) -- which alternatively means "to grow" or, as would follow, "elder" or "senior." While they obviously have different meanings and are different parts of speech, the fact that both can be used by themselves as words makes parsing a bit harder than with some of the 多音字 above.