Work & Occupations: Vocabulary for jobs, work, and the workplace

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Pinyin is the standard romanisation used to show Mandarin pronunciation using the Latin alphabet. You’ll often see tone marks on the vowels to show the four tones (plus the neutral tone), for example mā / má / mǎ / mà / ma. “Numbered pinyin” shows the same tones using a number after the syllable instead of tone marks, for example ma1 / ma2 / ma3 / ma4 / ma (sometimes written as ma5 for the neutral tone). Numbered pinyin is handy when you can’t easily type tone marks, while tone-mark pinyin is usually easier to read once you’re used to it.

工人

• Pinyin: gōng rén
• Numbered pinyin: gong1 ren2
• English translation: worker

工作

• Pinyin: gōng zuò
• Numbered pinyin: gong1 zuo4
• English translation: job, to work

开会

• Pinyin: kāi huì
• Numbered pinyin: kai1 hui4
• English translation: to have a meeting

请假

• Pinyin: qǐng jià
• Numbered pinyin: qing3 jia4
• English translation: to request leave

上班

• Pinyin: shàng bān
• Numbered pinyin: shang4 ban1
• English translation: to go to work

事

• Pinyin: shì
• Numbered pinyin: shi4
• English translation: matter, affair

下班

• Pinyin: xià bān
• Numbered pinyin: xia4 ban1
• English translation: to get off work

医生

• Pinyin: yī shēng
• Numbered pinyin: yi1 sheng1
• English translation: doctor

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