利润
The English word profit is translated into Mandarin as 利润.
利润 is a noun meaning total income or cash flow minus expenditures. You may also encounter 盈利, which refers to earnings or profits from a financial perspective.
Meaning: total income or cash flow minus expenditures (noun)
What does it mean word for word?
The word 利润 consists of 利 (lì) meaning benefit or profit and 润 (rùn) meaning moisten or profit/surplus.
Which one should you use?
利润 refers specifically to actual monetary profit, whereas 收益 refers more broadly to income or returns. Additionally, while 利润 is a noun, 盈利 is often used as a verb or adjective to describe the act of making a profit or being profitable.
Is it said differently in some regions?
In Taiwan, the term 純益 is used to refer to net profit.
Did you know?
- In modern internet slang, the character 润 (rùn) has taken on a completely different meaning: it is used to describe 'running away' or 'emigrating' from a place, often due to economic or social pressures.
- The character 利 in 利润 also means 'sharp' and was originally used to describe a blade. This creates a conceptual link between the 'edge' of a knife and the 'edge' of a financial advantage.
- In Chinese business culture, the concept of 'profit' is often balanced with 义 (yì), meaning righteousness. The phrase 义利之辨 refers to the ancient philosophical struggle to balance making a profit with doing what is morally right.
Examples in context
- 公司的利润大幅增长了The company's profits have increased significantly.
- 他的新业务赚了不少钱His new business made a good amount of money.
- 企业的純益值得称赞The company's net profit is commendable.
- 我们的利润很高。Wǒmen de lìrùn hěn gāo.Our profit is very high.
- 这笔交易几乎没有利润。Zhè bǐ jiāoyì jǐhū méiyǒu lìrùn.This transaction has almost no profit.
- 我们需要提高每月的利润。Wǒmen xūyào tígāo měiyuè de lìrùn.We need to increase our monthly profit.
Example conversation
Two colleagues are discussing their business report.
- 晓雯 Xiaowen浩然，你看一下这个月的利润。Hàorán, nǐ kàn yīxià zhège yuè de lìrùn.Haoran, take a look at this month's profit.
- 浩然 Haoran利润比上个月增长了很多。Lìrùn bǐ shàng gè yuè zēngzhǎng le hěnduō.The profit has grown a lot since last month.
- 晓雯 Xiaowen这是因为我们降低了成本。Zhè shì yīnwèi wǒmen jiàngdī le chéngběn.That is because we reduced the costs.
- 浩然 Haoran晓雯，你的分析很正确。Xiǎowén, nǐ de fēnxī hěn zhèngquè.Xiaowen, your analysis is very correct.
