手头 shǒutóu on hand
on hand; at hand; one's financial situation
How to remember 手头: 手 hand + 头 head = on hand.
Characters
How it is used
- 'On hand / at hand', two senses: (1) what you have available right now - 手头没有现金 (shǒutóu méiyǒu xiànjīn) I have no cash on me; (2) one's finances - 手头紧 (shǒutóu jǐn) short of money.
- Colloquial; 手头紧/手头宽裕 (shǒutóu jǐn / kuānyù) tight/comfortable are the standard ways to describe cash flow.
- Refers to immediate personal availability, not storage elsewhere.
Example sentences
- 有时我吸烟只是因为要给我手头点事做。 Yǒushí wǒ xīyān zhǐshì yīnwèi yào gěi wǒ shǒutóu diǎnshì zuò.Sometimes I smoke just to give my hands something to do.
- 我们没有足够的时间来完成手头的工作。 Wǒmen méiyǒu zúgòu de shíjiān lái wánchéng shǒutóu de gōngzuò.We didn't have enough time to finish what we were doing.