85812
These three kanji「労、 働、 努」are taught close together in grade 4. I've struggled
a bit in separating them conceptually, and haven't found anything online in
English that explains this distinction.

I've had a native speaker explain it to me in Japanese and I interpreted the
distinction as the following:

働: It's your work, your job, i.e. what society pays you for, as in 働く

努: Applies to a level of effort in any manner of applying yourself, as in 努力
and 努める, which can be applied to outside of what one would consider a
traditional job. Similar conceptually to 頑張る.

労: Also applies to your job, but more with regard to an outcome/effort level
related to you applying yourself to it as in ご苦労様 and 労う.

Am I understanding this correctly?
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2021-03-27T22:44:24.760
85810
2021-03-28T01:41:21.997
2021-03-27T23:22:49.067
35059
35059
question
kanji
Kanji 労 vs 働 vs 努
I'm not sure if I understand that native speaker's explanation, but a very
simple summary is this:

  * **働** : work to make money; job
  * **努** : effort; endeavor; striving
  * **労** : labor; workload; burden

努 is a relatively positive word that is associated with something you actively
do/make. 労 is a relatively negative word that is associated with something you
are burdened with.

Just in case you've missed it, note that a single kanji is not necessarily a
standalone word (see [this
discussion](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/a/83500/5010)), and the meaning
of a single kanji is not always preserved when it's used as part of a
compound. 働 and 努 are never used as an independent word, and 労 works as an
independent word almost exclusively as part of the set phrase 労をねぎらう.
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-03-28T01:41:21.997
85812
2021-03-28T01:41:21.997
5010
85810
answer