Mnemonic comic for

Translation

go̅ng = gu + (e)ng1: meritorious deed or service / achievement / result / service / accomplishment / work (physics)

Mnemonic

Gitta Giraffe (gu) practices her Kung Fu skills (功) in front of the engine ((e)ng1) with a sparring robot made out of steel beams (工). The robot is programmed to fight Kung Fu (功), but Gitta Giraffe's Kung Fu is better: she hits the robots power button (力) and turns it off.

功 character breakdown

power / force / strength / ability / strenuously

= + 丿 : Mnemonic symbol: a power button.

Li Qingzhao (li) just had a shower in the space station's bathroom (Ø4) and wants to use the hair dryer, but there's no plug, just the bare end of the cable! She uses all her power to build an electricity plug, and for the two pins she uses a plough (㇆) and a banana (丿). Finally she hits a big power button (力) to turn the power on.
work / worker / skill / profession / trade / craft / labor

= + : Mnemonic symbol: a steel beam, since 工 looks like the cross section of a steel beam.

Gitta Giraffe (gu) is working a shift in front of the engine ((e)ng1). Her job is to melt dinosaur bones (丨) so that they can be disposed off easily. To melt the bones, she is shorting a huge capacitor (二) with a steel beam (工) which consequently heats up to a bright glow. Using the glowing hot steel beam she can melt the dinosaur bone easily.

Characters with 功 as component

功 is not used as a component in another character.

Words with 功

contribution / meritorious service / credit
to waste all one's previous efforts (idiom) / all that has been achieved goes down the drain
merit / efficacy / competence / skill / power
see 下工夫[xia4 gong1 fu5]
achievement / meritorious deed / contributions (for the good of society)
one's contributions cannot go unnoticed (idiom)
half the work, twice the effect (idiom); the right approach saves effort and leads to better results / a stitch in time saves nine
scholarly honor (in imperial exams) / rank / achievement / fame / glory
to act (in opera) / stage business
position and wealth (idiom); rank, fame and fortune
success at one go / to succeed at the first attempt
lit. not aiming to achieve the best possible result, but rather trying to avoid making mistakes (idiom) / fig. to take a risk-averse approach
twice the effort for half the result
to practice (work skills)
effort will undoubtedly lead to success (idiom)

Sentences with 功

nín
de
go̅ng
láo
kě
bù
xiǎo
a