jan4 gung1人工
Jyutpingjan4 gung1
Yaleyàhn gūng
Definition
Salary, wage, or pay earned from work.
Example
colloquialmoneywork
How it's used
Used almost exclusively in casual conversation to refer to one's regular income. While it literally translates to artificial work, it has nothing to do with being fake or man-made in this context. It is the standard way to talk about paychecks among friends and colleagues.
Measure word
fan6份fanhExamples
The boss finally agreed to give me a pay rise this year.
Related words
Common mistake
Do not confuse this with 薪水, which is a formal term used in written Chinese or Mandarin. Using 薪水 in daily spoken Cantonese can sound overly stiff or like you are reading from a contract.
Grammar color guide
Noun
Verb
Adjective
Adverb
Pronoun
Classifier
Particle
Connector
Grammar guides
- Directional complementsThe small words added after a verb to show direction of movement, like up, down, out, in, and back. Common in everyday Cantonese.
- DemonstrativesThis and that with 呢 and 嗰, the personal pronouns, and how 哋 turns I, you, and he into we, you all, and they.
- Resultative complementsSticking a result word onto a verb to show how it turned out, like eat until full or look and find. A productive everyday pattern.
