How to use 碰 (pèng), 碰见 (pèngjiàn) and 碰上 (pèngshàng) in Chinese grammar
In this lesson we’re looking at three related but distinct words in Chinese: 碰, 碰见 and 碰上.
It’s always good to add more words to your vocabulary, but another advantage of lessons like this is that they give another angle into useful grammar structures.
And, as always, there are plenty of example sentences for you to mine.
碰 (pèng)
碰 is the simplest of the three words explained here. It simply means “to touch” or “to hit” (in a non-aggressive sense). This literal meaning lies behind the other two words.
Have a look at some example sentences:
As you can see, 碰 is quite a versatile word, and can be used to describe various kinds of contact between two things.
碰见 (pèngjiàn)
Unlike 碰, 碰见 has quite a specific meaning. It means “to bump into”, in the sense of unexpectedly meeting someone. (See also: 碰见, 遇见 and 见面).
This is just a metaphorical extension of 碰, and is very similar to “bump into” in English.
Some examples:
As with a lot of Chinese words, 碰见 makes a lot of sense when you break it down into its component parts: “hit” and “see”.
碰上 (pèngshàng)
Just as 碰见 is an extension of 碰, you could say that 碰上 is an extension of 碰见.
Like 碰见, 碰上 can be used to talk about meeting people unexpectedly:
碰上 also has a further meaning, which is to encounter something other than a person. That sounds pretty creepy, but it’s actually just for situations like these:
In these sentences, 碰上 could still be undersood as “to meet”, but in these cases it’s not about meeting people. 碰上 can be used in this way, whereas 碰见 is exclusively for talking about meeting people.