下功夫

• Pinyin: xià gōng fu
• Hanzi breakdown: 下 = 一 + ト (apply, put in); 功 = 工 + 力 (work + strength — effort, achievement); 夫 = 二 + 人 (two strokes + person — a man, a measure of effort and time)

Meaning

To put in effort; to work hard at something; to invest time and energy into mastering or achieving something.

Emphasises deliberate, sustained effort and dedication. Often used in the context of learning skills, solving problems, or perfecting craft. 在……上下功夫 is a common collocational pattern meaning to focus one's efforts on a particular area.

Examples

1. 学好一门外语，必须在听说读写四个方面都下功夫，缺一不可。 To learn a foreign language well, you have to put in effort in listening, speaking, reading, and writing—none can be neglected.
2. 他在围棋上下了十几年的功夫，如今已达到了职业水平。 He put more than a decade of work into Go, and now he has reached a professional level.
3. 这道菜的关键在于火候，要真正做好，必须在这上面下功夫。 The key to this dish is heat control; to truly do it well, you have to put in the work on that.

Usage Guide

Context: education, skill development, work ethic, self-improvement

Tone: encouraging

Do Say

• 学琴前三级阶段要在音阶、指法和视奏上真正下功夫。(In the first three years of piano study, real effort must be put into scales, fingering, and sight-reading.)
• 创业早期最该下功夫的，是摸清用户痛点和快速验证产品。(In the early stages of a startup, the effort should go into understanding user pain points and quickly testing the product.)

Don't Say

• 下功夫 for one-off tasks that require no sustained effort — it implies extended, deliberate investment of time and energy; for a quick effort use 努力一下 or 用心做; 下功夫 implies building mastery or solving something that requires persistence

Origin & History

下 (to put down, to apply) + 功夫 (skill, effort, time spent mastering something) — to apply effort; to spend time and energy developing mastery

Cultural Context

Generation: All ages

Social background: Universal