TongTong
Sign in

人手 (rén shǒu) — manpower, staff (available workers); (in fixed phrases) per person, each person

Definition

A collective noun for 'manpower, available staff' — the workers an organization currently has. Unlike 人员 (people in a specific group/department), 人手 focuses on the available hands to do work; pair with 不足 / 紧张 for 'short-staffed'.

noun
manpowerstaff (available workers)(in fixed phrases) per personeach person

Examples

  • 人手，。
    Zuì jìn gōng sī rén shǒu jǐn zhāng, xū yào zhāo pìn xīn rén.
    The company is short on staff recently and needs to hire new people.
  • 人手，。
    Huì yì zī liào rén shǒu yí fèn, qǐng gè wèi dài biǎo ná hǎo.
    One copy of the meeting materials per person; please take one, representatives.
  • 人手，。
    Zhè ge xiàng mù rén shǒu bù zú, jìn dù hěn màn.
    This project lacks manpower, so progress is slow.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
偏正piānzhèngModifier + head

The first part narrows down the second: it says what kind of thing the head is.

人rénperson
手shǒuhand

Combines 人 and 手 to suggest a person's hand, extended to available manpower or staff.

Characters in this word

A drawing of the thing itself, worn down over three thousand years into a few strokes.

The shape of 人 shows a side view of a standing person, with an arm and a leg.

Open 人 →

A drawing of the thing itself, worn down over three thousand years into a few strokes.

手 draws a five-fingered human hand: the top line is a bent middle finger, and the horizontal lines show the other four fingers.

Open 手 →
Appears in
HSK 3.0 Level 7-9Workplace & Office

Browse more HSK 7-9 words or search the full 43,000-word dictionary.