If you can use Chinese nouns as verbs, or vice versa
If you can use Chinese nouns as verbs, or vice versa


Many Chinese nouns can also be verbs; and many Chinese verbs can also be nouns-- but not all of them, just like in English


  Please go into more detail how you can use nouns as verbs, what the rules are generally


Typically, a word was either coined for a noun or verb first, and then its meaning extended to other word type for convenience's sake.

For example, It is possible that when people invented drill, they called it '鑽' (n); later when they needed a word to describe the action of 'to drill' , it is very convenience to add the meaning to the existing noun and make '鑽' both noun and verb.

Or it is the other way around, people called the action of 'to burrow' as '鑽'(v); when 'drill' was invented, they just use the verb '鑽' to name it, because a drill 'burrow' into things.

So, when a noun is closely associated with an unique action (verb), it would be used as a verb eventually; similarly when a verb is closely associated with an object (noun), it would be used as a noun eventually


The nouns that cannot be use as a verbs are mostly something that do not associate with a specific action, for example:  劍(sword). We cannot use 'sword someone' to describe 'to stab someone' because there are too many other objects you can use to stab someone
The verbs that cannot be use as a nouns are mostly intransitive, or something that do not associate with any particular object. For example 插(stab),  You can stab with too many objects to make 插(v) a noun for any of them


It is always "插(stab)你一劍(sword)" , never  "劍(stab?)你一插(sword?)"

The best way to make sure you can or cannot use a Chinese noun as a verb or vice versa is to check a dictionary-- Just like in English