<p><em>Longman Advanced Chinese Dictionary</em> has a footnote on their entry for 違背 which explains the differences:</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>【違背•違反•違犯】<br>
  wéi bèi / wéi fǎn / wéi fàn<br>
  都是動詞﹐都有不合﹑不遵守的意思。區別在：「違背」側重於背離﹐不遵守﹐能用於自己的心意﹑情感等﹐語意較輕；「違反」和「違犯」語意比「違背」重；「違反」側重於不符合﹐如「違反紀律」﹑「違反操作規程」等；「違犯」側重於觸犯﹐適用範圍比「違反」小﹐如「違犯國法」﹑「違犯制度」等。</p>
</blockquote>

<p>All three are verbs. They all basically carry the same meaning but「違反」and「違犯」are stronger.「違反」emphasizes the idea of <em>falling short of</em>, while 「違犯」emphasizes the action of <em>going against</em>.「違犯」is more specific and its scope of usage is more limited in comparison to「違反」.</p>

<p>You might also notice that 犯 is used in instances like <em>breaking</em> the law, where as 反 is just doing the opposite of something and is often used as the prefix: counter-.</p>

<hr>

<p><em>Longman</em> also provides some examples of usages:</p>

<ul>
<li>違犯法紀</li>
</ul>

<p>[To] break the law.</p>

<ul>
<li>違反原則</li>
</ul>

<p>[To] go against [one's] principles.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-06-20T10:32:35.927Z
2019-06-20T10:44:00.163Z
2019-06-20T10:44:00.163Z
Mou某
<p>Both 违犯 and 违反 share the meaning &quot;to violate&quot;.</p>
<p>What are the differences between these two?</p>

<word-choice><usage><mandarin>
What are the differences between 违犯 and 违反?
# What are the differences between 违犯 and 违反?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2019-06-20)

Both 违犯 and 违反 share the meaning "to violate".

What are the differences between these two?

**Tags:** word-choice, usage, mandarin

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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2019-06-20. Score: 3

*Longman Advanced Chinese Dictionary* has a footnote on their entry for 違背 which explains the differences:

> 【違背•違反•違犯】  
> wéi bèi / wéi fǎn / wéi fàn  
> 都是動詞﹐都有不合﹑不遵守的意思。區別在：「違背」側重於背離﹐不遵守﹐能用於自己的心意﹑情感等﹐語意較輕；「違反」和「違犯」語意比「違背」重；「違反」側重於不符合﹐如「違反紀律」﹑「違反操作規程」等；「違犯」側重於觸犯﹐適用範圍比「違反」小﹐如「違犯國法」﹑「違犯制度」等。

All three are verbs. They all basically carry the same meaning but「違反」and「違犯」are stronger.「違反」emphasizes the idea of *falling short of*, while 「違犯」emphasizes the action of *going against*.「違犯」is more specific and its scope of usage is more limited in comparison to「違反」.

You might also notice that 犯 is used in instances like *breaking* the law, where as 反 is just doing the opposite of something and is often used as the prefix: counter-.

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*Longman* also provides some examples of usages:

* 違犯法紀

[To] break the law.

* 違反原則

[To] go against [one's] principles.


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