Difference between 告白 and 表白 as verbs I don't understand the difference between the two, don't they both mean &quot;to explain&quot;? When would one be used over the other?
表白 is almost always used to someone (or a group of people), and it is usually feelings that are being explained. Most often it means &quot;confessing your love or crush&quot;. So you can say &quot;我向她表白&quot; (I &quot;explained&quot; to her, which means I confessed my love to her) Without a romantic context, you can say &quot;我一再表白，生怕别人误会&quot; (I keep explaining, afraid of being misunderstood by people).
告白 has the same &quot;express&quot; meaning, but not as much &quot;explain&quot; as 表白. So the romantic example above can be exchanged with 告白, as in &quot;我向她告白&quot; (I express my love to her, which means the same thing), but the second example would not work with &quot;告白&quot;.
In addition, 告白 can be used for public announcement, which you cannot use 表白 there. For example, &quot;告白天下&quot; means &quot;announce to the world&quot;. This usage is a little dated but it is very much still understood.