work

hard

Learning a new language requires hard work and patience over many months.

arduous, back-breaking, challenging, complicated, demanding, difficult, gruelling, intensive, labour-intensive, tiring, tough

Learning a new language requires demanding work, but the results are always worthwhile.

rewarding

heavy

Moving the furniture upstairs was heavy work, so we asked our friends to help us.

donkey

My sister handles all the donkey work while I manage the creative side of the project.

light

My father does some light work in the garden on weekends to stay active.

easy

close

The surgeon performed close work during the delicate operation on the patient's eye.

physical

delicate

dangerous

dirty

Cleaning the toilets is dirty work, but someone has to do it.

humdrum, monotonous, repetitive, tedious

fascinating, interesting

purposeful

She felt more satisfied after switching to a job that was purposeful work.

valuable

The volunteers do valuable work helping elderly people in the community.

paid, unpaid

professional

men's, women's

In many families, cooking and cleaning used to be considered women's work.

intellectual, mental

creative, imaginative

practical

investigative

undercover

Police officers spent years doing undercover work to catch the criminal gang.

leg (also legwork)

The detective had to do a lot of legwork before solving the case.

course (also coursework)

written

The teacher asked students to submit their written work by Friday afternoon.

individual

group

project

bit, piece

She did a really good bit of work on the garden this weekend.

carry out, do, put in

The team put in weeks of hard work to finish the project on time.

get done, have done

I need to get some work done before the deadline tomorrow afternoon.

produce

The research produced by our team over five years finally got published last month.

get, have

During the summer holidays, my sister has so much work that she barely has time to relax.

take on, undertake

She undertook challenging work at the new hospital after graduating from nursing school.

create, make

Organizing the school carnival created a lot of work for the volunteers.

begin, commence, get down to, set about/to, start

The construction crew started work on the new bridge last Monday morning.

go about

He went about his work carefully, checking each detail before moving on.

carry on, continue

complete, finish

halt, hold up, stop

Construction at the building site stopped work for two weeks due to bad weather.

lose

After the budget cuts, the company lost the work and had to lay off several employees.

undo

She had to undo all the work her son did when he reorganized the kitchen.

oversee, supervise

The manager supervised the work on the new office building for several months.

set sb to

The manager set the new team to work on organizing the warehouse shelves.

require

Learning a new language requires a lot of work, but it gets easier with practice.

hand in

Students need to hand in their work by Friday afternoon.

come

During busy seasons, extra work comes when we least expect it.

wait

The repairs on the house can wait until next month.

go

My project is going well, but I need to finish it by Friday.

involve sth

The job involves working with children and planning creative activities every day.

begin, start

continue, go on

come to a standstill

When the factory's power went out, all work came to a standstill for several hours.

cost

The renovation work on our house is costing more than we expected.

ethic

rate

The team's work rate has improved significantly since they started the new training program.

programme, schedule

surface

The kitchen work surface was cluttered with dirty dishes and old newspapers.

at ~

She was at work when her son called to say he'd lost his keys.

~ on

My sister is working on her science project and needs help this weekend.

~ with

The team has been working with local communities to improve the neighborhood park.

a backlog of work

The office has accumulated a backlog of work that needs to be completed this week.

keep up the good work

Your grades have improved this term, so keep up the good work in your studies.

your life's work

She spent fifty years as a teacher, and helping young people was truly her life's work.

make light/short work of sth

never/not a stroke of work

My brother hasn't done a stroke of work since he lost his job last month.

pressure of work

The pressure of work meant she had to skip lunch most days last week.

work in progress

My essay is still a work in progress, so I'll finish it this weekend.

lucrative, well paid

badly paid

full-time, part-time

permanent

temporary

regular, steady

She finally found steady work at the hospital after months of searching for a job.

casual

She picked up some casual work at the coffee shop during her gap year.

freelance

voluntary

skilled

semi-skilled

unskilled

manual

indoor, outdoor

daily, day-to-day, everyday, routine

The nurses continued their everyday work even when the hospital was short-staffed.

piece

She took a part-time job doing piece work at the factory to earn extra money.

administrative, clerical, office, secretarial

managerial

domestic

social

research

agricultural, farm

building

nice

She did nice work on the kitchen renovation, and her clients were really happy with the results.

have

She has some part-time work in the evenings while studying during the day.

look for

After finishing university, she decided to look for work in a different city.

find, get

My brother finally got work at a restaurant after looking for three months.

go to

My daughter goes to work early every morning because she has a long commute.

go out to

My father went out to work early every morning for thirty years.

start

finish, knock off

I need to finish work early today because I have a doctor's appointment.

stop

My father stopped work at 65 and now he travels around the world.

give up

She gave up work to look after her three young children full-time.

go back to, return to

After six months of recovery, he finally went back to work last Monday.

coordinate

The two departments had to coordinate their work carefully to meet the deadline.

go

Things have been going smoothly at my job since we got the new manager.

start

My new job starts at 9 o'clock, but I usually arrive ten minutes early.

finish

hours

During work hours, most offices ask staff to focus on their tasks.

place (also workplace)

area, environment, room (also workroom)

station (also workstation)

roster, schedule

experience

My daughter is doing work experience at a local hospital this summer.

permit

incentive

The company offers bonuses as work incentives to help employees stay motivated.

practice

The company improved its work practices after receiving feedback from employees.

at ~

My brother is at work right now, so he won't be home until six o'clock.

in (your) ~

Many people feel stressed when they're not happy in their work environment.

off ~

My father took a week off work to help us move to our new house.

out of ~

My sister has been out of work for three months while she looks for a new job.

through ~

I discovered my best friend through work at the coffee shop downtown.

a line of work

My uncle spent thirty years in the same line of work as a carpenter.

a place of work

classic, fine, great

definitive, seminal

That documentary remains the seminal work on climate change for most scientists today.

influential

erudite, scholarly

ambitious

literary

dramatic

critical

autobiographical, biographical

artistic

art (also artwork)

Her latest work displays incredible talent and creativity that impressed all the gallery visitors.

abstract, figurative, graphic

choral, orchestral, piano

collected, complete

The museum displayed the complete works of Picasso across three large galleries.

early

late, mature

The artist decided to exhibit only her late works, which showed a completely different style.

series

collection, exhibition

compose, produce, write

The author wrote several important works during her time living in Paris.

commission

perform, play

hear, read, see

You can read his work in several popular magazines every month.

conduct, direct, edit, produce, publish, put on

The museum is publishing new work by contemporary artists from around the world.

display, exhibit, show

The museum displayed important works of art from the Renaissance period last year.

be called sth, be entitled sth

The famous painting is called "Starry Night" and was created by Van Gogh.

in a/the ~

The main character's struggle appears in the work of many contemporary artists.

~ by

That famous painting was created by a talented artist from Spain.

an exhibition of sb's work

The museum is displaying an exhibition of contemporary artists' work next month.

a work of art/fiction/literature

The novel is widely regarded as a masterpiece, a true work of fiction that captivates readers worldwide.

a work of genius

The architect's design for the new museum was considered a work of genius by critics worldwide.

extensive, major

road (also roadworks)

maintenance, repair, restoration

demolition

carry out

The construction company will carry out urgent repair work on the bridge next month.

plan

announce

continue, go on

The construction work went on for several months before the new building was finally ready.

at the ~

My father spent thirty years at the factory before he retired last month.

open

close (down), shut down

turn sth out

The factory works managed to turn out fifty cars each day despite the equipment problems.

open

close (down)

foreman, manager, supervisor

canteen

at the ~

My father spent thirty years at the factory where he made car parts.

hard

Sarah works hard every day to support her two children and achieve her goals.

steadily

round the clock

The hospital staff worked round the clock during the pandemic to care for patients.

full-time, part-time

My sister decided to work full-time after graduating from university last year.

efficiently

She works efficiently when she focuses on one task at a time.

closely, collaboratively, together

The two designers worked closely on the project and created something really special.

alone, independently

away

The students chipped away at their project throughout the afternoon.

continue to

choose to, prefer to

Many people choose to work from home after the pandemic ended.

motivate sb to

The promise of a bonus motivated her to work late every evening that month.

enable sb to

A flexible schedule enabled her to work part-time while studying for her degree.

refuse to

as

She worked as a nurse in the hospital for five years before changing careers.

at

She worked at her computer all morning to finish the project before lunch.

for

My brother works for a tech startup in the city center.

on

The team has been working on improving customer service at the restaurant.

with

She enjoys working with her team to solve difficult problems at the office.

effectively, efficiently, perfectly, properly, satisfactorily, smoothly, well

The new software worked perfectly after we installed the latest update.

independently

After the accident, her left eye started working independently, which made reading very difficult.

seem to PHRASAL VERBS work out

perfectly, well

badly

for

Everything seemed to work out for him despite the initial difficulties.