HSK 5 · Function Words

不断 búduàn “unceasing” in Chinese

Traditional 不斷

What 不断 means

  1. unceasing
  2. uninterrupted
  3. continuous
  4. constant

How to say 不断

  • Pitch chart of the second tone: rises from mid to high, 3 to 5 on the five-level scale不bú2nd tone, rising
  • Pitch chart of the fourth tone: falls from high to low, 5 to 1 on the five-level scale断duàn4th tone, falling

Tone change. 不 is bù on its own. Before a fourth tone it changes to bú, and textbooks write that change in, as here. How tone changes work

不断 in a sentence

  1. 软件正在不断进化。

    Ruǎnjiàn zhèngzài búduàn jìnhuà.

    Software is constantly evolving.

    Sentence #8696302 from Tatoeba

  2. 她不断在房间里走来走去。

    Tā búduàn zài fángjiān lǐ zǒu lái zǒu qù.

    She kept pacing around the room.

    Sentence #1327456 from Tatoeba · converted to simplified characters · translation adapted

  3. 最近几年到新加坡的旅客人数不断增长。

    Zuìjìn jǐ nián dào Xīnjiāpō de lǚkè rénshù búduàn zēngzhǎng.

    The number of visitors to Singapore has been rising steadily in recent years.

    Sentence #372357 from Tatoeba · converted to simplified characters · translation adapted

How 不断 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 sobú in 不断

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 断 (duàn) drawn as one shape
断duànto break

断 is a single shape of 11 strokes. Learn it whole, then watch its stroke order below.

How to write 不断

不 4 strokes · 断 11 strokes

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

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

Words related to 不断

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 断

判断pànduàn · to judge断duàn · to break诊断zhěnduàn · to diagnose断定duàndìng · to conclude断绝duànjué · to break off中断zhōngduàn · to interrupt果断guǒduàn · decisive垄断lǒngduàn · monopoly片断piànduàn · fragment

More words: Function Words & Grammar

彼此bǐcǐ · each other必然bìrán · inevitable毕竟bìjìng · after all便biàn · then不见得bújiànde · not necessarily不然bùrán · otherwise不如bùrú · not equal to不要紧búyàojǐn · unimportant

FAQs

不断 (búduàn) means “unceasing” or “uninterrupted”. It is an HSK 5 word.
Say it búduàn: bú with a 2nd tone, then duàn with a 4th tone. 不 is bù on its own. Before a fourth tone it changes to bú, and textbooks write that change in, as here. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
In Traditional characters, used in Taiwan and Hong Kong, 不断 is written 不斷. The pronunciation is the same.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type buduan with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 不断 from the suggestions. Typing buduan into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
不断 is an HSK 5 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.