傻=笨。（adj.） 傻瓜=笨蛋(n.)，in the same way that a foolish melon is equal to a stupid egg. Well，just a silly comparison that may help you remember. If you are not asking about the part of speech (like adj. n. verb. preposition)， but the meaning, then I would say 傻瓜 and 笨蛋 are often used interchangeably. And 小 preceding them would make them much less aggresive.

Hey Helena, 傻瓜 is a noun describing someone who is dumb/slow/an idiot. However, nowadays, it's not really considered a strong insult to call someone a 傻瓜. You can often find people calling themselves a 傻瓜 whenever he/she makes a mistake. It is also used by close friends to tease each other. 笨, on the other hand, is a verb that refers to someone who is clumsy. It also isn't considered a strong insult, but this phrase isn't used to joke around like 傻瓜. The key to difference between the two is that one is a verb and one is a noun. One refers to someone's intelligence (an idiot) and the other refers to one's ability to execute certain tasks (clumsy). Hope this helped! ~Andrew

Thanks all

first of all, "傻瓜" is a noun, which means you have to say "somebody is a 傻瓜"; "笨" is an adjective, which means you have to say "somebody is 笨"。However, they are of similar meanings: to say that somebody is stupid or silly. I guess the only difference is that sometimes we use 傻瓜 to close friends/your boyfriend or girlfriend/ you children when they make some obvious mistakes, but we mean no harm; however, if you use "笨", it sounds a bit offensive.

Can we make friends and learn from each other ?