Expressing "for" with "wei"

When you work for a company, or do other sorts of physical (and even mental) activities for another party, you're likely to use the Chinese preposition 为 (wèi), which is often translated into English as "for," a translation which is often unnatural or unnecessary, depending on the particular phrase. The super common Mao-era phrase, 为人民服务 ("serve the people"), doesn't need the word "for" in English, for example.

Don't confuse this preposition with 为了, which is a bit different.

Structure

为 + [some part] + Verb

Examples

• 为 人民 服务。Wèi rénmín fúwùServe the people
• 我 为公司 做了一个市场调查。Wǒ wèi gōngsī zuò le yī gè shìchǎng diàochá.I did a market research for our company.
• 她 为 美国 政府 工作。Tā wèi Měiguó zhèngfǔ gōngzuò.She works for the United States government.
• 老师 总是 为 学生 操心。Lǎoshī zǒng shì wèi xuésheng cāoxīn.The teacher cares about the students.
• 公司 为 她 提供 了 很 多 资源。Gōngsī wèi tā tígōng le hěn duō zīyuán.The company provided her with many resources.

See also

• Expressing purpose with "weile"
• "For" with "gei"

Sources and further reading

Books

• Chinese Grammar - Broken down into 100 items - Basic and Intermediate Levels (汉语语法百项讲练 - 初中级) (pp. 238) →buy
• Practicing HSK Grammar (语法精讲精炼) (pp.76) →buy
• Boya Chinese Lower Intermediate 1 (博雅汉语准中级加速篇) (pp. 203) →buy

Websites

• Yale Chinese Usage Dictionary: Uses of 为 and 为了