开始工作
kāishǐ gōngzuò
To get to work in Chinese is 开始工作 (kāishǐ gōngzuò).
开始工作 is used to express the act of beginning a specific task or starting your professional duties for the day. If you want to informally motivate someone to get moving or get going, you can use 动起来.
What does it mean word for word?
The phrase is composed of 开始 (kāishǐ), meaning 'to start/begin' and 工作 (gōngzuò), meaning 'work/to work'.
Which one should you use?
While 开始工作 focuses on the specific act of beginning a task, the term 上班 (shàngbān) is more commonly used to describe the routine of 'going to work' or starting one's official workday shift.
How does it change in a sentence?
By adding the particle 了 (le) to the end of the phrase to form 开始工作了, you indicate that the action of starting work has just occurred or that there has been a change in state.
How do you pronounce it?
kāishǐ gōngzuò
Did you know?
- The character 工 (gōng) in 工作 is a pictograph that originally depicted a carpenter's square or tool.
- While 上班 means starting work, the counterpart 下班 (xiàbān) means finishing work, utilizing the 'up' and 'down' spatial logic to denote the start and end of a shift.
- In some contexts, the word 工作 is used euphemistically to describe a 'mission' or 'special assignment' that is not a standard 9-to-5 job.
Examples in context
- 老板让我们每天早上九点上班。The boss asks us to start work every day at 9 a.m.
- 我们应该早点开始工作。We should start working early.
- 别再拖延了，动起来开始工作吧！Stop procrastinating, get moving, and start working!
- 快点抓紧时间，我们要赶上进度！Hurry up and seize the time, we need to catch up with the progress!
- 我准备开始工作了。Wǒ zhǔnbèi kāishǐ gōngzuò le.I am ready to get to work.
- 我们该开始工作了。Wǒmen gāi kāishǐ gōngzuò le.We should get to work.
- 他马上就开始工作。Tā mǎshàng jiù kāishǐ gōngzuò.He will get to work immediately.
Example conversation
Two colleagues are in their office in the morning.
- 晓雯 Xiaowen伟，你准备好开始工作了吗？Wěi, nǐ zhǔnbèi hǎo kāishǐ gōngzuò le ma?Wei, are you ready to get to work?
- 伟 Wei是的，我马上开始工作。Shì de, wǒ mǎshàng kāishǐ gōngzuò.Yes, I will get to work right away.
- 晓雯 Xiaowen那我们今天一起努力吧。Nà wǒmen jīntiān yìqǐ nǔlì ba.Then let's work hard together today.
- 伟 Wei好的，晓雯。Hǎo de, Xiǎowén.Okay, Xiaowen.
