How to use 学 (xué) and 学会 (xuéhuì) in Mandarin Chinese Grammar
学 (xué) and 学会 (xuéhuì) can both mean “to learn” in Mandarin Chinese.
学 is a verb that describes the ongoing process of learning. 学会 is a compound verb that indicates the completion of learning or mastering a skill.
会 often means “can” or “to know how to”. In 学会, it suggests that after learning, the person is now able to do something. So you could think of 学 combined with 会 as “to learn and then be able to”.
学会 is especially common for skills, abilities and learning how to do something.
Compare these sentences:
Now to get a bit more technical. 学会 is a resultative verb compound, where a result complement follows the main verb to indicate the outcome of the action. Other common verb-complement compounds include 看见 (kànjiàn), 听见 (tīngjiàn), 记住 (jìzhù) and 买到 (mǎidào).
- 看见 = look → see
- 听见 = listen → hear
- 记住 = try to remember → remember and it sticks
- 买到 = try to buy → succeed in buying
- 学会 = learn → master
Another common form of complement is a direction complement.
学 (xué) example sentences
学 alone has a more general meaning of “to learn” or “to study”, without indicating the result of the learning. It can be used on its own, or as part of the compound 学习 (xuéxí).
Note how none of these sentences indicate a final result for the learning or studying.
学会 (xuéhuì) example sentences
In contrast to 学 or 学习, 学会 specifically indicates that the learning has been successful and the skill or knowledge has been acquired. This is somewhat similar to saying “learned how to” in English.
Note that 学会 does not necessarily have to be about past events. It could be about future, conditional, hypothetical or habitual events. Compare these example sentences:
学不会 (xué bù huì): to be unable to learn something
Result complements like 学会 can be split with 不 to show that the result cannot be achieved.
So while 学会 means “to successfully learn” or “to learn how to”, 学不会 means “unable to learn” or “cannot master”.
Compare:
- 学会 = to learn successfully
- 学不会 = to be unable to learn
And for comparison with 记住:
Note how 学不会 and 记不住 mean that the result is not possible in general, rather than not being achieved once.
学到 (xuédào): to acquire knowledge or insight
学会 is not the only result complement compound involving 学. Many possible results could be added to 学. One example is the word 学到 (xuédào).
学到 has a similar meaning to 学会. Both of these compound verbs indicate that something was learned. 学会 tends to describe actively learning a skill or mastering some kind of knowledge. 学到 tends to describe acquiring information or insight about something through circumstances. In some situations these two verbs can be used interchangeably.
学会 implies active proficiency, while 学到 indicates acquisition of knowledge.
学而时习之 (xué ér shí xí zhī)
One last thing to note about the distinction between 学 (xué) and 学会 (xuéhuì) is the first line of Confucius’ Analects (in Classical Chinese):
This shows that 学 by itself refers to the process of learning, without implying successful learning or acquisition.