下功夫
xiàgōngfu
to put in effort, to work hard
Characters in this word
功 gōng
- Strokes
- 5
- Radical
- 力 — strength, power
- How it's built
- Ideograph — the meaning is built from its parts
夫 fū
- Strokes
- 4
- Radical
- 大 — big, great, vast, high, deep
- How it's built
- Ideograph — the meaning is built from its parts
Example phrases
- 要把发音练准，必须在声调上下功夫。 Yào bǎ fāyīn liàn zhǔn, bìxū zài shēngdiào shang xià gōngfu. To get pronunciation accurate, you must put effort into the tones.
- 想学好汉语，就得在听和说上多下功夫。 Xiǎng xué hǎo Hànyǔ, jiù děi zài tīng hé shuō shang duō xià gōngfu. If you want to learn Chinese well, you have to work harder on listening and speaking.
- 想把字写好看，就要在练习上下功夫。 Xiǎng bǎ zì xiě hǎokàn, jiù yào zài liànxí shang xià gōngfu. If you want to write characters beautifully, you need to put effort into practice.
Related words
- 楼下 lóuxià downstairs
- 下 xià down, below; to go down; to finish (work or class)
- 下班 xiàbān to finish work
- 下边 xiàbian below, underneath
- 下车 xiàchē to get off (a bus or car)
- 下次 xiàcì next time
- 下课 xiàkè to finish class
- 下午 xiàwǔ afternoon
- 下雨 xiàyǔ to rain
- 一下儿 yíxiàr a bit, briefly (after a verb)
- 坐下 zuòxia to sit down
- 放下 fàngxia to put down