Table-tennis table: 乒乓球桌, 乒乓球台 or 乒乓球案子?

Question

I have found those translations of a "table-tennis table":

乒乓球桌
乒乓球台
乒乓球案子

Searching for pictures of them, all 3 appear to be the same thing. On http://www.mdbg.net/ I only found 乒乓球台 .

Are those words interchangeable? Which is more commonly used?

Answer 1

All three terms refer to the same thing - table tennis table.

乒乓球桌 is a commonly used (1.58M results on Google, 2.60M results on Baidu) layman's term.

乒乓球台 is the technical term (both Baidu and Wikipedia use this term) and is commonly used (2.14M results on Google, 4.19M results on Baidu) as well.

乒乓球案子 is rarely used (0.21M results on Google, 0.13M results on Baidu) from my own personal experience.

When used by itself,

桌 refers to a table.

台 refers to a platform or a stage.

案子 refers to a long table or a plank used as a make-shift table.

If you are discussing about table tennis in general, you can also use 球桌 or 球台 to refer to the table.

Answer 2

The first two are both commonly used. I have never heard of the third one, but a look on google shows usage. I suspect the third one is used more in Northern China, but this is just a guess.

So yes, since they refer to the same thing, you can use them interchangeably, but I'd stick with the first two just to be safe.

Answer 3

And in Cantonese, it is

兵乓波台

pronounced, roughly, as BING BUM BOR TOI, but often the second sound is shortened and quick, to BING um BOR TOI.

Answer 4

乒乓球案子 is informal, kind of dialect in some areas.

Answer 5

As a chinese, I usually call table-tennis table "乒乓球案子", it is correct in some area of China, but it is not formal.In china ,we call table-tennis table "乒乓球台” formally