Kilo Lingo

(zhí yè) - occupation, profession, professional in Mandarin

zhí

Traditional: 職業

#2264 of 5,000 Core 5000

Translation

occupation, profession, professional

Word origin

A compound of 职 (zhí, a duty or official post) and 业 (yè, a trade or line of work), giving the line of work a person holds a post in.

Origin
compound
Root
职 (zhí, post, duty) + 业 (yè, trade)

Stroke order

Stroke order for 职

Stroke order for 业

Examples

Please write down your occupation.

Doctor is a highly respected profession.

He is a professional athlete.

Changing profession takes courage.

She is very happy with her profession.

职业 (zhí yè) is your occupation in the form-filling sense: the profession you belong to rather than the particular job you turn up to. It is what goes in the box on a visa application.

Put in front of a noun it means professional as opposed to amateur: 职业运动员, 职业球队, 职业习惯. That is a genuine second life for the word and worth learning as a separate habit.

The trap is 工作. If you want to say I am looking for a job, I am going to work, my job is tiring, use 工作 every time. 职业 is the category; 工作 is the daily thing. Also keep it apart from 专业, which is a university major or a field of specialism.

Where this fits

Add to review queue

Track this word in your spaced-repetition queue and be tested on it at the right interval.

Go to my review queue

Mandarin · Free printables

职业: worksheet, infographic and listicle

Free printable study downloads for the Mandarin word "职业" (occupation, profession, professional): a worksheet with the answer key built in, an infographic, and a sentence listicle. Open any one to view, print or save.

Free for members

The printable worksheets, infographics and PDFs are free with an account. Start a free week and download as many as you like.

Start your free week

This word is part of lesson 46.