What's the difference between 遭到 and 遭受?

Question

The verbs 遭到 and 遭受 both mean to suffer harm. Which one is the most commonly used?

Are these two sentences both correct?

生态平衡遭到破坏。

生态平衡遭受破坏。

What's the difference between this two sentences? Can I use them interchangeably?

Answer 1

• 遭: encounter; suffer; receive

• 到: verbal particle to indicate the result of an action.

• 遭到 (receive; encounter) is a verb 遭 (encounter) + a verb particle 到. There is only one verb 遭.

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• 遭: receive; encounter; suffer

• 受: receive

• 遭受 is a compound word (single word) for 'receive; suffer; undergo'

Since 遭受 is a single verb, you can add verb particle 到 after it to indicate the result and write 遭受到.

On the other hand, 遭到 is a verb and its verb particle, you can omit the verb particle and only write 遭 when you don't need to emphasize the result of the verb

The following are all valid sentences. They all mean the same:

生态平衡遭受破坏。(the compound word verb 遭受 is more specific than the single character verb 遭)

生态平衡遭受到破坏。 (the verb particle 到 indicates the verb 遭受 is completed/ received a result

生态平衡遭破坏。(using the literary single character verb 遭 make it sounds more classical/ literary)

生态平衡受破坏。(using the colloquial single character verb 受 make it sounds more modern/ colloquial)

生态平衡遭到破坏。(the verb particle 到 indicates the verb 遭 is completed/ received a result, also make it sounds more modern/ colloquial)

You can replace 遭到 (more literary) with 受到 (more colloquial)