活儿

• Pinyin: huó r
• Hanzi breakdown: 活 = 氵+ 舌 (water + tongue; originally living/alive, extended to mean work/labor for a living); 儿 = pictograph of a person (diminutive/colloquial 儿化 suffix in northern Mandarin, especially Beijing dialect)

Meaning

Work; a job or task, especially manual or physical work. A colloquial term used in everyday speech for any kind of work or chore.

活儿 is an informal, colloquial term for work, chores, or a piece of work that needs doing, especially manual labor. It is heavily used in northern Chinese dialects and casual speech. Common expressions include 干活儿 (to work/labor), 找活儿 (to look for work), 接活儿 (to take on a job), and 好活儿 (a good or easy job). It has a down-to-earth working-class connotation. The 儿化 suffix is characteristic of Beijing and northern Mandarin.

Examples

1. 父亲从小就教导我们，干活儿要认真踏实，无论是什么样的活儿都要全力以赴，绝对不能马虎了事。 My father taught us from a young age to work carefully and reliably—no matter what the job is, you give it your all and never do it carelessly.
2. 春节临近，装修队的活儿已排到了三个月后，想要在节前完工几乎是不可能完成的任务了。 With the Spring Festival approaching, the renovation crew is booked three months out; finishing before the holiday is almost impossible.
3. 他在外打工多年，什么活儿都干过，从建筑工地的搬运工到餐馆的洗碗工，从未嫌弃任何一份工作。 He has worked away from home for many years and has done all kinds of jobs—from a laborer hauling materials at construction sites to a dishwasher in restaurants—and he’s never looked down on any kind of work.

Usage Guide

Context: labor, work, everyday speech, northern dialect

Tone: neutral

Do Say

• 工地上的活儿又重又累，工人们日日扛着建材爬上爬下，为城市高楼打下基础。(The work at the construction site is heavy and exhausting, and the workers carry materials up and down every day, laying the foundation for the city's skyscrapers.)
• 她接了一批赶工的活儿，要在一周内完成五十件手工刺绣作品，每晚都要工作到深夜，手指都磨出了厚厚的老茧。(She took on a rushed batch of work — completing fifty hand-embroidered pieces within one week — working late into every night until her fingers had developed thick calluses.)

Don't Say

• 活儿 in formal or written Chinese — use 工作 or 任务 in professional and academic contexts; 活儿 is colloquial and informal, most natural in spoken northern Mandarin

Origin & History

活 (work/living — 活 originally means 'life/alive' and by extension 'work for a living') + 儿 (diminutive/colloquial 儿化 suffix common in northern Mandarin) — a northern dialect expression for any kind of work or task

Cultural Context

Generation: All ages

Social background: Working class / Universal