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Both of them mean "wall", then what's the difference?
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2016-11-24T13:14:08.583
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question
word-choice
What's the difference between 壁 and 塀?
壁｛かべ｝ is a regular wall. 塀｛へい｝ may be a wall but not necessarily. A 塀 enclose
a perimeter (like a house, a building, ...) and it define a frontier between
the interior and the exterior. A wall does not define an interior and an
exterior (just two sides: in front of the wall and behind the wall).
Therefore, sometimes 塀 is translated as a fence.

You can have a look at google images to get a more precise idea.
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2016-11-24T13:39:47.577
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answer
On a first glance, they both seem to mean the same thing. 壁 is used more
frequently in Japanese, in the essence of common words it participates in,
like 完璧, 障壁 e.t.c. 塀 on the other hand is more commonly used alone, with the
meaning "fence, wall". Of course there are words that use the Kanji, like 石塀,
ブロック塀 e.t.c. but they are not as common.

If you want to know why the first wall Kanji differs from the second both in
usage and frequency, you'll have to resort to Kanji etymology.

壁 comes from the element 土 which you may be familiar as "soil, clay" and a 辟
is a phonetic element. That means, it is used to convey the reading of the
Kanji. There have been some sources (e.g.Henshall) tying the usage of 辟 us a
phonosemantic element, meaning it is also used not only because it gives the
Kanji reading, but it also builds around its meaning, more specifically "law,
restriction", thus "clay restricting something->wall".

塀 is tied many times with 垣 that has again the same meaning (some consider the
former the variant of the latter). 塀 is mostly considered a Japan-created
variant. 土 is again "soil, clay" and 屏 among others means "barrier, shield" in
Chinese.

So building up to @永劫回帰 answer, 塀 carries not only the meaning of a regular
wall, like clay restricting something (壁）but also "shielding, protecting,
defending", thus most frequently used to define an exterior walling, something
that doesn't passively restrict entry but "shields" or "defends", like a
fence.
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answer