公司
company; firm
HSK level
- Pinyin
- gōngsī
- Part of speech
- noun
- Level
- HSK 2
- Strokes
- 9
- Register
- neutral
- Measure word
- 家 / 个
- In episodes
- 5
Stroke order for 公司
公司 is written with 9 strokes (公: 4, 司: 5). The animation replays automatically.
What does 公司 mean?
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.
Hear 公司 in real episodes
公司 appears in 5 Fluentide podcast episodes at natural native speed, 4 of them below. Each sentence plays at the easiest difficulty it exists in — switch it to hear the same moment at your level, with full pinyin and English throughout.
星舰是美国的一个公司做的。
Starship was made by an American company.
Starship Reaches Orbit for the First Time, Deploys 26 Starlink Satellites — Then Comes Home Early
可是，送东西的公司说，很多人都喜欢无人机。
But the company delivering the packages says lots of people like the drones.
Boxes Falling From the Sky: Amazon's Delivery Drones Are Driving a Texas Suburb Up the Wall
六月，每家人都看了一个公司写的信。
In June, every family read a letter written by a company.
$10,000 for Every Household If the Data Center Gets Built: Why a Pennsylvania Township Isn't Buying It
他写了一个公司。
He wrote about a company.
The Economist's Joke Memo: A Company Tries to Fix Its Staff's Sleep, and Everything Goes Wrong
Example sentences
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
Common phrases with 公司
Synonyms
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.
Don't confuse 公司 with
Frequently asked questions
Related words from the same episodes
Acquire it by listening
Meet 公司 again — in real Chinese, at your level.
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