What is the difference between 店 and 馆?

Question

In class I remember my 老师 said there is a difference between 店 and 馆。 For example: 咖啡店 and 咖啡馆。In this context what is the difference?

Answer 1

There is difference between 店 and 馆. Actually, it is likely be the convention of Chinese expression.

茶馆: a place where you can drink tea.

茶店: a place where you can buy tea, usually called 茶叶店.

咖啡馆=咖啡店，旅馆=旅店，理发馆=理发店

but 饭馆≠饭店，酒馆≠酒店

Answer 2

店(shop; store; commercial establishment) is undoubtedly a business

馆(1. public building for accommodation 2.public building for cultural activities 3.public building for certain services) may or may not be a business

Answer 3

I think your comment is right, although in my (admittedly) more colloquial Taiwanese-y Chinese, I would probably call it a 咖啡站 instead of a 咖啡館. However, a 店 is probably a store where you buy supplies related to the product.

Answer 4

Supplement to Tang Ho's answer: Note: Sometimes you can't tell the meaning of a word from a single character consisting that word. So the following explanation is applied to a character:

店：originally mean warehouse in ancient time, now expand to "place sell goods or service", for example: inn, shop, fair.

馆: Divided into two parts: left part is "餐", right part is "官". Guess it originally means an official place to provide meals and rest. Now it could be:

1. accommodation for guests

2. live, reside (verb. Classical Chinese)

3. hotel

4. house

5. collection e.g. 馆藏

6. restaurant e.g. 馆子

Answer 5

店: 1.商店，卖东西的铺子 杂货～|～铺|～员。

2.旅馆 住～|车马～|旅～。

馆： 1.供宾客、旅客居住的场所 宾～|旅～。

2.一个国家在另一个国家办理外交的人员办公的处所 大使～|领事～。

3.开展文化体育活动的场所 图书～|博物～|体育～|文化～。

4.某些服务行业店铺的名称 饭～|茶～|理发～|照相～。 The first translation of 店 sometimes has the same meaning of the last translation of 馆 and the second translation of 店 sometimes has the same translation of the first meaning of 馆。

Answer 6

i don't think there is a a difference. Technically, say 咖啡馆 is more oral, 咖啡店 is more literal.