Dictionary › 工夫

工夫

gōng fu

Old HSK 6 HSK 3.0 level 6 2-character word

工夫 (gōng fū) means "time and effort spent". It is an HSK 3.0 level 6 word, and was HSK 6 in the old six-level list.

What 工夫 means

1. period of time (may be months, or mere seconds)
2. spare time
3. skill
4. labor
5. effort

Other readings

工夫 is 多音字 — it is read more than one way, and the reading changes the meaning.

• gōng fūlaborer

The characters in 工夫

• 工gōngwork; worker; skill
• 夫fūhusband; man; manual worker

Example sentences

• 没工夫休息的人，早晚会有工夫生病的。
  Méi gōngfū xiūxi de rén, zǎowǎn huì yǒu gōngfū shēngbìng de.
  People who cannot find time for recreation are obliged sooner or later to find time for illness.
• 她昨晚已经收拾好行李，所以今天早上没费多少工夫就准备好出门。
  Tā zuówǎn yǐjīng shōushi hǎo xíngli, suǒyǐ jīntiān zǎoshang méi fèi duōshao gōngfū jiù zhǔnbèi hǎo chūmén.
  She was able to be ready early this morning, because she finished packing last night.

Words starting with 工夫

• 工夫茶gōng fu chávariant of 功夫茶

Words containing 工夫

• 下工夫xià gōng futo put in time and energy; to concentrate one's efforts
• 做工夫zuò gōng futo practice (work skills)
• 费工夫fèi gōng futo spend a great deal of time and effort; (of a task) demanding; exacting
• 抓工夫zhuā gōng futo maximize one's time; to catch some time out; to find enough time
• 踏破铁鞋无觅处，得来全不费工夫tà pò tiě xié wú mì chù , dé lái quán bù fèi gōng futo travel far and wide looking for sth, only to find it easily

Sounds the same

Read gōng fu, tone for tone, but written differently.

• 功夫skill; art; kung fu

Where 工夫 is taught

In the GraphChinese course it is part of HSK 6 Vocabulary · gēng–gōng (HSK 6), each one a topic in the dependency graph of HSK 1–6 that opens only once its prerequisites are solid.

Go deeper

• Every HSK 6 word, with the rest of its level.
• The four tones and the neutral tone, to read gōng fu correctly.
• Look up another word in the free dictionary.