The Chinese word 夜班 (yèbān), meaning "night shift", is a straightforward compound noun formed by combining two meaningful characters: 夜 (yè), which means "night", and 班 (bān), which means "shift", "duty", or "scheduled work period". It follows the common structural pattern in Mandarin where two independent, concrete concepts are placed together in a modifier-head relationship, here, 夜 modifies 班, to create a new, specific term that is semantically transparent and immediately understandable as "the shift that takes place at night".