活儿

• 拼音: huó r
• 汉字拆解: 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)

含义

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.

例句

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。
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。
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。

用法指南

语境: labor, work, everyday speech, northern dialect

语气: neutral

正确说法

• 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.)

错误说法

• 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

起源与历史

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

文化背景

世代: All ages

社会背景: Working class / Universal