近义词 or "homonyms" are words that pretty much have the same meaning but differ in how, and in what context they are used.

It can be pretty difficult to figure out the difference between these words on your own, so I though that we could help each other!

I am currently having a hard time figuring out the difference between 情形 and 情况. I found an explanation in Chinese on nciku, but that did not help much: "情形"跟"情况"意义不同。"情形"指事物发展变化中所表现出的外在形态和状况，词义较具体；"情况"指事物发展变化中所反映出的特征和趋势，词义较抽象。

Anyone care to help me out?

As a caveat, I just want to say that I think the best way to deal with near synonyms like these is to get more in-context exposure and develop a sort of intuition as to the subtle nuances in meaning between the two words. As I have yet to develop this intuitive sense myself, I will take a crack at a more analytic approach.

According to the NCIKU explanation,情形 is used to describe externally visible changes in a situation and has a more specific and concrete sense. 情况 on the other hand, has a more abstract sense and can be used to discuss underlying trends.

In other words, we could say 情形 is the situation as it appears to us. Also, 情况 seems to have a more narrow sense than 情况, which is the more encompassing of the two words. 情况 can also be used in the same way as 情形，that is, to describe the given situation, but it has many other meanings as well.

Hope that helps, if anybody could further clarify, I would appreciate it.

@Jmatek

Yeah, thats about what I got from the Chinese explanation as well and it makes sense since "形=how something looks", but I could still use some more info and maybe some examples.

As jmatek said, the best way to deal with 近义词 is by studying them through context.
I'm building a set of sentences in memrise to try to understand them faster.
http://www.memrise.com/course/181151/dictionary-21/
*Levels 26 and 27.

@湖安马林

Yeah, but I kind of like having some rules when possible :D And luckily, there are some rules for most 近义词.

For example, the last two 近义词 I was struggling with was 目前 and 当前. The rules for these two is that 当前 can always replace 目前 in a sentence since it has the same meaning, but it sounds a little bit more formal. However, 当前 also has one more meaning that 目前 lacks, and this is that something actually is in front of you, like 大敌当前 etc, so you cant always replace 当前 with 目前.

All 近义词 can be explained in a similar fashion, but the problem is finding someone who actually CAN explain them :D

Looking at and understanding individual characters is often the key to understanding near-synonyms (homonyms are words that sound the same but mean different things). There are many ways of dealing with them and it becomes much easier once you can use Chinese-only sources, because simply searching for the two terms on Google will usually return lots of hits with native speakers asking about how they are used.

A caveat for beginners and low-intermediate learners, though: it's usually a waste of time to be too specific. Don't try to understand all the details at once, learn more Chinese in general and return to near-synonyms when you actually need them. I've written much more about how I deal with near-synonyms here:

http://www.hackingchinese.com/dealing-with-near-synonyms-in-chinese-as-an-independent-learner/

@Molndrake
I mostly try to use Chinese only sources, but sometimes it's a bit hard to understand when there are no specific examples given. I am a bit rusty, but I would consider myself an advanced learner. I majored in Chinese at a university in Guangzhou 6 years ago, so its pretty frustrating when I come across these 近义词 because I've probably studied most of them already, but now I've forgot some of them. I've hardly studied any Chinese these last 6 years, except for some skrittering a few years ago, but I ended up deleting my stats, can't recall why though :P

Anyways, it's gonna take a while to reach the same level as I used to be, but its good to be back. The best thing would be if I could find a job where I could get to speak Chinese daily, that would speed things up a lot.

The TW moe dictionary at http://dict.revised.moe.edu.tw/ gives 3 definition for 情況. 1. 事物的實際狀況。 2. 興致、情趣。 3. 情緒、心情。 That same dictionary defines 情形 as 事物的實際狀況。and adds a note saying 亦作「情況」、「情狀」。

So, 情形 is for things, matters and objects only but 情况 can also be used for mood, feeling and the state of mind.

Zdict at http://www.zdic.net/c/5/98/171571.htm has 7 entries in the 引证解释 section explaining 情况. The 2 entries that are relevant for this discussion are 3 and 7. No. 3 say that it's the same as 情形. No. 7 explains that 今亦特指军事上敌情的变化。

现代汉语词典 5th edition explains 情形 as 事物呈现出来的样子。It gives 2 explanations for 情况. 1. 情形 and 2. 指军事上的变化，泛指事情的变化、动向。

From these explanations, I'd say that 情形 is a subset of 情况. Whenever 情形 appears, one can simply substitute 情况 for it. But 情况 has a broader meaning. It can also refer to the changes and trend of the matter. And this agrees with what Nciku says, “指事物发展变化中所反映出的特征和趋势.”

Two examples from 现代汉语词典 for 情况 which can't be replaced by 情形:
这两天前线没有什么新的情况。
他俩的关系最近又有了新的情况。