费劲

• Pinyin: fèi jìn
• Hanzi breakdown: 费 = 弗 + 贝 (not + shell/money — to spend, consume); 劲 = 工 + 力 (work + strength — force, vigour, effort)

Meaning

To require great effort; laborious; strenuous. Describes a task or action that demands much physical or mental exertion, often more than expected.

A colloquial expression used to describe tasks that are unexpectedly difficult, time-consuming, or energy-draining. Can function as a predicate adjective (很费劲) or verb complement. Often implies that the effort required exceeds what one would expect or desire. More common in spoken language than formal writing.

Examples

1. 在没有任何辅助工具的情况下徒手将这台重达数百公斤的大型机械设备从地下室搬运至三楼确实极为费劲，工人们花了将近半天才最终完成任务。 Without any tools, moving this large machine—weighing several hundred kilograms—by hand from the basement up to the third floor was truly exhausting. It took the workers nearly half a day to finish.
2. 他费劲地将那份措辞晦涩、逻辑混乱的合同文本通读了一遍，却发现其中存在数处相互矛盾的条款，最终不得不请专业律师协助进行逐条解读。 He struggled through the contract, which was obscurely worded and poorly organized, only to find several contradictory clauses. In the end, he had to ask a professional lawyer to interpret it line by line.
3. 对年迈的祖父来说，学会智能手机功能很费劲，但他坚持练习数周后，终于能独立视频通话。 For his elderly grandfather, learning how to use a smartphone was really difficult, but after weeks of practice, he finally could make video calls on his own.

Usage Guide

Context: daily life, work, physical tasks

Tone: neutral

Do Say

• 这个软件的操作界面设计得相当不直观，每次想要找到某个常用功能都要在菜单里翻找半天，真的非常费劲，急需一次全面的用户体验优化改进。(The operational interface of this software is designed in a rather unintuitive way; every time you want to find a commonly used function, you have to rummage through the menus for a long time — it is really very laborious and is in urgent need of a comprehensive improvement in user experience.)
• 用这种方式逐字逐句解释这首古诗虽然费劲，但对初学者建立正确的文言文语感和语法认知却有着不可替代的基础性作用，不可因嫌麻烦而省略。(Although explaining this ancient poem word by word in this way is laborious, it plays an irreplaceable foundational role in helping beginners develop a correct feel for classical Chinese and grammatical understanding, and cannot be skipped just because it is troublesome.)

Don't Say

• 费劲 in formal written contexts — it is a colloquial term; in formal writing, use 耗费大量精力 or 颇为费力 instead

Origin & History

费 (to expend, to cost) + 劲 (strength, energy, effort) — to expend a great deal of strength or energy on something

Cultural Context

Generation: All ages

Social background: Universal