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功夫 (gōng fu) — time and effort (spent on something); kung fu, Chinese martial arts; skill, art, craft

Definition

At HSK 4, 功夫 usually means 'time and effort' or 'skill/craftsmanship' built through practice. 武术 is the formal term for the martial art; 工夫 (HSK 6) is a variant spelling used more for 'time' and 'spare time'.

noun
time and effort (spent on something)kung fuChinese martial artsskillartcraft
Easily confused

Examples

  • 功夫。
    Tā xià le hěn duō gōng fu cái xué huì.
    He put in a lot of effort before he learned it.
  • 功夫。
    Tā liàn le shí nián gōng fu.
    He has practiced kung fu for ten years.
  • 。
    Tā huà huà hěn yǒu gōng fu.
    He is very skilled at painting.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
联合liánhéCoordinate

Two parts of equal weight, alike or opposite in meaning, standing side by side.

功gōngeffort
夫fūlabor

功 (effort) and 夫 (labor) together give the sense of effort, time, or trained skill.

Characters in this word

Most characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
力力lìstrength
Sound part声符shēngfú
工
工gōng功gōng
Same sound today

功 puts 力 (strength) beside 工, which gives the sound gōng and means labour or work.

Open 功 →

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

假借jiǎjièLater borrowed for its sound alone — the picture has nothing to do with today’s meaning.

夫 originally drew a man. It was borrowed purely for its sound to write a pronoun, so the picture and the pronoun meaning are unrelated.

Open 夫 →
Appears in
HSK 3.0 Level 4HSK 2.0 Level 5Chinese Culture & CustomsSports & Athletics5000 Most Frequent Chinese Words

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