工面する

• Reading: くめんする
• Romaji: kumensuru
• Kanji breakdown: 工 (kō/ku) — craft, work; 面 (men/omo) — face, surface, aspect
• Pronunciation: /kɯ.me.ɴ.sɯ.ɾɯ/

Meaning

To contrive; to manage to arrange; to scrape together funds or resources; to make do through ingenuity.

A Group 3 (suru-verb) compound. 工面 originally referred to the 'face of a craftsman' — someone who figures out how to make things work under constraint. Today it primarily means finding a way to secure money or resources through effort and ingenuity rather than ease. Used when someone manages to raise funds or make arrangements despite difficulty.

Examples

1. 旅費を工面するために副業を始めた。 He started a side job to scrape together travel expenses.
2. 親戚に頼み込んで、どうにか学費を工面した。 He begged his relatives and somehow managed to come up with the tuition money.
3. 資金を工面できなければプロジェクトは中止になる。 If we can't secure the funding, the project will be canceled.

Usage Guide

Context: finance, resourcefulness, problem-solving, daily life

Tone: practical

Origin & History

工面 comes from carpenters' trade jargon. 工 means craft or work, and 面 means face or aspect — the craftsman's practical way of looking at a problem to find a workable solution.

Cultural Context

Era: Modern

Generation: Adults

Social background: Universal