How to use the Chinese characters ‘卧’ and ‘躺’ accurately?

Question

How to use the Chinese characters ‘卧’ and ‘躺’ accurately? HSK Nov 30 • 1700 read The Chinese characters ‘躺’ and ‘卧’ are synonyms. When I looked up the example sentences in the dictionary, I found that in real life people use the Chinese character ‘躺’ (lie), but rarely ‘卧’(卧). However, the Chinese character ‘卧’ means to lie down, for example: ‘奶奶卧病在床.’ Here it means that grandma is lying in bed. Why do you use the Chinese character ‘卧’, and is there another meaning?

zhuthomas84 · Accepted Answer

只要了解了“躺”和“卧”都是什么姿势就不难区分了。含义：“躺”：身体平放，尤其背部朝下，日常口语最常见。“卧”：将身体放置在一个平面上，可以是侧（横）卧，身体两侧朝下；或者俯卧，腹部朝下（也叫趴着）。如果想要表达和“躺”同样的意思，可以说“仰卧”。“卧”更正式，适用于各种姿势，常用于特定场合或书面表达。“躺”和“卧”常见用法：•	躺下、躺在、躺了、平躺、躺平（网络流行语，表达放弃拼搏、选择不再过度努力、顺其自然地生活的态度）•	卧室、侧卧、仰卧、俯卧、卧槽（中国象棋术语）、卧病在床、卧床不起、卧虎藏龙、卧榻之上岂容他人鼾睡，站似一棵松，卧似一张弓希望以上解释对你有所帮助 (more)

Rosie · Answer

In daily speech, it's ture, we prefer to use "躺” instead of "卧”. It's more colloquial. For example, 他躺在沙发上看电视；躺在床上看书对眼睛不好。
But in the situation that somebody is sick and lie down on the bed, we usually say “卧床休息” or “卧病在床”。Another situation where we should use “卧” instead of “躺” is "仰卧"（lie on one's back）; “俯卧”（lie on one's stomach）。