company; firm
HSK level
公司 is written with 9 strokes (公: 4, 司: 5). The animation replays automatically.
公司 (gōngsī) is the standard Chinese word for 'company' — any commercial business, from a two-person startup to a multinational corporation.
It covers what English speakers call a company, firm, or corporation. Three things to know: (1) the measure word is 家 not 个 — 一家公司 (one company); (2) when naming a specific company, 公司 typically comes at the end — 苹果公司 (Apple Company), 中国石油公司 (China Petroleum Company); (3) the word 'office' (where you work) is 办公室 (bàngōngshì), not 公司 — saying 我去公司 means 'I'm going to the company' (i.e.
the workplace), which functions like English 'I'm going to the office.' Common compounds include 公司里 (inside/at the company), 大公司 (big company), and 跨国公司 (multinational).
Character by character
Memory hook: 公 (public) + 司 (to manage) = a publicly managed entity = a company.
公司 appears in 13 Fluentide podcast episodes at natural native speed — each with the full Chinese script, pinyin, and line-by-line English translation.
我在一家中国公司工作。
Wǒ zài yì jiā Zhōngguó gōngsī gōngzuò.
I work at a Chinese company.
neutral
我们公司很大。
Wǒmen gōngsī hěn dà.
Our company is big.
spoken
他每天八点去公司。
Tā měitiān bā diǎn qù gōngsī.
He goes to the office at eight every day.
neutral
这家公司有三百个人。
Zhè jiā gōngsī yǒu sān bǎi gè rén.
This company has three hundred people.
neutral
我想自己开一家公司。
Wǒ xiǎng zìjǐ kāi yì jiā gōngsī.
I want to start my own company.
spoken
企业 ('enterprise') is a more formal/abstract term used in news, policy, and HR contexts — covers companies plus state-owned enterprises and broader business units. 公司 refers to a specific incorporated company you can walk into.
单位 means 'work unit' — your employer in general, including government bodies, schools, and hospitals. 公司 only refers to commercial companies. Older speakers and government workers especially use 单位.
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