I’ve been stuggling for some time to learn Chinese. It is difficult, because Chinese is a tonal language, and like most foreigners, I’m a bit tone-deaf. This is why finding out this similarity made me laugh:
老板 = lǎobǎn = Boss, landlord, shop owner
老伴 = lǎobàn = “Better half”, spouse, husband/wife
The phonetic difference is merely between third and forth tone on the second syllable. The difference in real life can be much more. Or is it?
