HSK 5 · Verbs

干活儿 gànhuór “to work” in Chinese

Traditional 幹活兒

What 干活儿 means

  1. to work
  2. to do a job

How to say 干活儿

  • Pitch chart of the fourth tone: falls from high to low, 5 to 1 on the five-level scale干gàn4th tone, falling
  • Pitch chart of the second tone: rises from mid to high, 3 to 5 on the five-level scale活huó2nd tone, rising
  • Pitch chart of the neutral tone: short and light, with no contour of its own儿rneutral tone, light and short

Grey pinyin is a neutral tone: say it short and light. More on the neutral tone

干活儿 in a sentence

  1. 爷爷八十岁了，还天天下地干活儿。

    Yéye bāshí suì le, hái tiāntiān xià dì gànhuór.

    Grandpa is eighty and still works in the fields every day.

    Sentence by WillyChina

  2. 他干活儿很认真。

    Tā gànhuór hěn rènzhēn.

    He works very conscientiously.

    Sentence by WillyChina

How 干活儿 is built

Each colour is one part of the character. Parts repeat across thousands of characters, so learning them makes new words easier. See all 214 in our radicals chart.

The character 干 (gān) with each of its parts in a different colour
干gàntree trunk
  • 一one · yī
  • 十ten · shí

Memory aidDrawn from a forked stick used as a weapon or shield. As a simplified character it also stands for 乾 “dry” and 幹 “to do”.

The character 活 (huó) with each of its parts in a different colour
活huóto live
  • 氵water form of 水 · shuǐMeaning part
  • 舌tongue · shéSound part

氵 hints at the meaning (water); 舌 (shé) hints at the sound. Compare it with huó.

The character 儿 (ér) with each of its parts in a different colour
儿rnon-syllabic diminutive suffix
  • 丿slash · piě
  • 乚second (cyclical) form of 乙 · yǐ

Memory aidSimplified from 兒, a child drawn with a big head. Only the legs 儿 are left today.

How to write 干活儿

干 3 strokes · 活 9 strokes · 儿 2 strokes

Watch the order, then press Try writing it and draw each stroke in the grid. Each stroke is checked as you go.

干活儿 (gànhuór) stroke order chart: each stroke of the characters in the order you write them
Stroke order chart for 干活儿 (gànhuór). Red marks the next stroke, so you can copy it onto paper one step at a time.

Words related to 干活儿

Words with 干

干净gānjìng · clean干gān · dry饼干bǐnggān · biscuit干杯gānbēi · to drink a toast干燥gānzào · dry (weather干脆gāncuì · simply能干nénggàn · capable干扰gānrǎo · to disturb干涉gānshè · to interfere干预gānyù · to intervene

Words with 活

活huó · to live活动huódòng · activity生活shēnghuó · to live活泼huópo · lively活跃huóyuè · active灵活línghuó · flexible活该huógāi · serves (someone) right快活kuàihuo · happy复活fùhuó · to come back to life活力huólì · vitality

Words with 儿

儿子érzi · son女儿nǚ'ér · daughter哪儿nǎr · where这儿zhèr · here那儿nàr · there一点儿yìdiǎnr · a little面条儿miàntiáor · noodles好玩儿hǎowánr · amusing有点儿yǒudiǎnr · slightly男孩儿nánháir · boy

More words: Common Verbs

改进gǎijìn · to improve改善gǎishàn · to make better改正gǎizhèng · to correct盖gài · lid搞gǎo · to do公开gōngkāi · open贡献gòngxiàn · to contribute构成gòuchéng · to constitute

FAQs

干活儿 (gànhuór) means “to work” or “to do a job”. It is an HSK 5 word.
Say it gànhuór: gàn with a 4th tone, then huó with a 2nd tone, then r with a neutral tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
In Traditional characters, used in Taiwan and Hong Kong, 干活儿 is written 幹活兒. The pronunciation is the same.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type ganhuor with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 干活儿 from the suggestions. Typing ganhuor into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
干活儿 is an HSK 5 word in the HSK 2.0 word lists.

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Sources: meaning and pinyin checked by a native Mandarin teacher against the official HSK lists. Extra meanings from CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0). Example sentences written by WillyChina. Character parts and stroke order from Make Me a Hanzi.