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工资 (gōng zī) — wages, salary, pay

Definition

工资 is the everyday word for 'salary / wages' — what you receive from your job each month. More general and common than 薪水 (also 'salary', slightly more formal); less broad than 待遇, which includes benefits and perks beyond pay.

noun
wagessalarypay
Measure word · 个, 份

Examples

  • 。
    Zhè ge yuè gōng zī hái méi fā.
    This month's salary hasn't been paid yet.
  • 工资。
    Tā zhǎo dào yí fèn gōng zī bú cuò de gōng zuò.
    She found a job with good pay.
  • 工资。
    Lǎo bǎn shuō xià ge yuè gěi dà jiā zhǎng gōng zī.
    The boss said everyone will get a raise next month.

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.

工gōngwork
资zīfunds

“工” (work) and “资” (funds) form pay given for work.

Characters in this word

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

The shape of 工 is a picture of a bladed tool used to plow ground or mark a border; some read it as a carpenter's square.

Open 工 →

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

This origin belongs to the traditional form 資; 资 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
貝貝bèishell-money
Sound part声符shēngfú
次
次cì資zī
Close in sound todayThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

The traditional form 資 puts 次 above 貝, a shell-money sign, to write property or resource; 次 supplies the sound. The simplified 资 is a shorthand, so do not treat its parts as historical.

Open 资 →
Appears in
HSK 3.0 Level 4HSK 2.0 Level 4Money & Currency5000 Most Frequent Chinese Words

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