HSK 4 · Function Words

不得不 bùdébù “have no choice or option but to” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 不得不 means

  1. have no choice or option but to
  2. cannot but
  3. have to
  4. can’t help it
  5. can’t avoid

How to say 不得不

  • Pitch chart of the fourth tone: falls from high to low, 5 to 1 on the five-level scale不bù4th tone, falling
  • Pitch chart of the second tone: rises from mid to high, 3 to 5 on the five-level scale得dé2nd tone, rising
  • Pitch chart of the fourth tone: falls from high to low, 5 to 1 on the five-level scale不bù4th tone, falling

不得不 in a sentence

  1. 我不得不向她道歉。

    Wǒ bùdébú xiàng tā dàoqiàn.

    I had to apologise to her.

    Sentence #339474 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  2. 他们不得不整天呆在家里。

    Tāmen bùdébù zhěngtiān dāi zài jiā lǐ.

    They had to stay at home all day.

    Sentence #1785947 from Tatoeba

  3. 她不得不放弃这个计划。

    Tā bùdébú fàngqì zhè ge jìhuà.

    She had to give up the plan.

    Sentence #2456076 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 不得不 is built

Each colour is one part of the character. Parts repeat across thousands of characters, so learning them makes new words easier. See all 214 in our radicals chart.

The character 不 (bù) drawn as one shape
不bùno; not so

不 is a single shape of 4 strokes. Learn it whole, then watch its stroke order below.

Memory aidPicture a bar 一 across the top that nothing below can get past: not, no.

The character 得 (de) with each of its parts in a different colour
得déto obtain
  • 彳step · chì
  • 旦dawn · dàn
  • 寸inch · cùn

Memory aidA hand 寸 picking up a shell, once used as money, while out on the road 彳: to get.

The character 不 (bù) drawn as one shape
不bùno; not so

不 is a single shape of 4 strokes. Learn it whole, then watch its stroke order below.

Memory aidPicture a bar 一 across the top that nothing below can get past: not, no.

How to write 不得不

不 4 strokes · 得 11 strokes

Watch the order, then press Try writing it and draw each stroke in the grid. Each stroke is checked as you go.

不得不 (bùdébù) stroke order chart: each stroke of the characters in the order you write them
Stroke order chart for 不得不 (bùdébù). Red marks the next stroke, so you can copy it onto paper one step at a time.

Words related to 不得不

Words with 不

不bù · no不要bùyào · don’t!不客气bú kèqi · you’re welcome对不起duìbuqǐ · sorry不错bùcuò · not bad不好意思bùhǎoyìsi · to feel embarrassed不但búdàn · not only不同bùtóng · different不少bùshǎo · quite a few不见bújiàn · to be missing

Words with 得

得de · particle linking a verb to how it is done (e.g. 跑得快觉得juéde · to feel记得jìde · remember得到dédào · to get得分défēn · to score (points)懂得dǒngde · to understand认得rènde · to recognise获得huòdé · to obtain得意déyì · proud of oneself值得zhíde · to be worth

More words: Particles & Connectors

按照ànzhào · according to倍bèi · times并且bìngqiě · and比如bǐrú · for example不过búguò · but不仅bùjǐn · not only (… but also)差不多chàbuduō · almost从来cónglái · always

FAQs

不得不 (bùdébù) means “have no choice or option but to” or “cannot but”. It is an HSK 4 word.
Say it bùdébù: bù with a 4th tone, then dé with a 2nd tone, then bù with a 4th tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 不得不 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type budebu with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 不得不 from the suggestions. Typing budebu into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
不得不 is an HSK 4 word in the HSK 2.0 word lists.

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Sources: meaning and pinyin checked by a native Mandarin teacher against the official HSK lists. Extra meanings from CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0). Example sentences from Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR). Character parts and stroke order from Make Me a Hanzi.