HSK 5 · Function Words

不如 bùrú “not equal to” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 不如 means

  1. not equal to
  2. not as good as
  3. inferior to
  4. it would be better to

How to say 不如

  • 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如rú2nd tone, rising

不如 in a sentence

  1. 数量不如质量。

    Shùliàng bùrú zhìliàng.

    Quality is more important than quantity.

    Sentence #565744 from Tatoeba

  2. 不如休息一下吧？

    Bùrú xiūxi yíxià ba?

    Why don’t we take a break?

    Sentence #433708 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  3. 电影不如原著好看。

    Diànyǐng bùrú yuánzhù hǎokàn.

    The film isn’t as good as the book.

    Sentence #1964246 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 不如 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 如 (rú) with each of its parts in a different colour
如rúas
  • 女woman · nǚ
  • 口mouth · kǒu

How to write 不如

不 4 strokes · 如 6 strokes

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

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

Words related to 不如

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 如

如果rúguǒ · if比如bǐrú · for example例如lìrú · for example如今rújīn · nowadays假如jiǎrú · if如何rúhé · how譬如pìrú · for example犹如yóurú · just like称心如意chènxīnrúyì · to be completely satisfied一如既往yìrújìwǎng · as always

More words: Function Words & Grammar

便biàn · then不断búduàn · unceasing不见得bújiànde · not necessarily不然bùrán · otherwise不要紧búyàojǐn · unimportant册cè · book朝cháo · towards除非chúfēi · only if (…

FAQs

不如 (bùrú) means “not equal to” or “not as good as”. It is an HSK 5 word.
Say it bùrú: bù with a 4th tone, then rú with a 2nd tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 不如 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type buru with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 不如 from the suggestions. Typing buru into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
不如 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.