Meaning
廉价 means cheap or low-priced, typically referring to goods or services that cost little money. While it can be neutral, it often carries a slightly negative connotation, suggesting not just low cost but also inferior quality or lack of value, similar to how 'cheap' in English can imply something poorly made.
Usage
Native speakers use 廉价 primarily to describe products, labor, or services that are inexpensive. It's more formal than 便宜 and appears frequently in written contexts like news articles and product descriptions. When describing something as merely affordable without negative implications, 便宜 is preferred. 廉价 often appears before the noun it modifies, as in 廉价商品 (cheap goods).
Examples
- 01这些廉价商品的质量往往不太好。.The quality of these cheap goods is often not very good.
- 02很多公司把工厂搬到发展中国家以利用廉价劳动力。.Many companies move their factories to developing countries to take advantage of cheap labor.
Characters
Common collocations
- 廉价商品cheap goods
- 廉价劳动力cheap labor
- 廉价航空budget airline
- 廉价出售to sell cheaply
Antonyms
Origin
廉 originally meant 'honest' or 'upright' in classical Chinese, but also came to mean 'low-priced' or 'not greedy for profit.' Combined with 价 (price), the compound specifically emphasizes the monetary aspect of being inexpensive.