重活

zhònghuó
noun #32,970

Meanings

  1. 1 heavy work
  2. 2 hard physical labor
  3. 3 tough job

Examples

Bānjiā zhè zhǒng zhònghuó wǒ yī gè rén gàn bu liǎo.
Moving house — that kind of heavy work — I can't do alone.
Zhònghuó ràng nánrén lái, nǐ xiē zhe.
Let the men handle the heavy work; you rest.

Tips

mistakes
Watch the tones: 重活 here is zhònghuó (heavy work) — both syllables fall. Don't confuse with 重活 (chónghuó) meaning "to come back to life / live again." Same characters, different word: has two readings (zhòng "heavy" / chóng "again"). Context disambiguates almost always.
usage
Opposite is (qīnghuó, light work). Both are colloquial — for formal or written contexts, prefer 体力劳动 (heavy manual labor).

Stroke Order

zhòng
huó