HSK 5 · Function Words

不要紧 búyàojǐn “unimportant” in Chinese

Traditional 不要緊

What 不要紧 means

  1. unimportant
  2. not serious
  3. it doesn’t matter
  4. never mind

How to say 不要紧

  • 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要yào4th tone, falling
  • Pitch chart of the third tone: dips low then rises, 2 to 1 to 4 on the five-level scale紧jǐn3rd tone, dipping

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

不要紧 in a sentence

  1. 稍微冷点儿不要紧。

    Shāowēi lěng diǎnr búyàojǐn.

    It doesn’t matter if it’s a bit cold.

    Sentence #1438336 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 不要紧 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 不要紧

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 要 (yào) with each of its parts in a different colour
要yàoto want; to need; to ask for
  • 覀cover form of 襾 · yà
  • 女woman · nǚ

Memory aidOnce drawn as a person with hands on the waist, its first meaning. That meaning moved to 腰 (yāo), and 要 became “to want”.

The character 紧 (jǐn) drawn as one shape
紧jǐntight

紧 is a single shape of 10 strokes. Learn it whole, then watch its stroke order below.

How to write 不要紧

不 4 strokes · 要 9 strokes · 紧 10 strokes

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

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

Words related to 不要紧

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 要

不要bùyào · don’t!要yào · want快要kuàiyào · about to需要xūyào · to need要求yāoqiú · to request重要zhòngyào · important主要zhǔyào · main就要jiùyào · about to要是yàoshi · if只要zhǐyào · if only

Words with 紧

紧张jǐnzhāng · nervous抓紧zhuājǐn · to keep a firm grip on紧急jǐnjí · urgent赶紧gǎnjǐn · hurriedly紧迫jǐnpò · urgent

More words: Function Words & Grammar

不断búduàn · unceasing不见得bújiànde · not necessarily不然bùrán · otherwise不如bùrú · not equal to册cè · book朝cháo · towards除非chúfēi · only if (…此外cǐwài · besides

FAQs

不要紧 (búyàojǐn) means “unimportant” or “not serious”. It is an HSK 5 word.
Say it búyàojǐn: bú with a 2nd tone, then yào with a 4th tone, then jǐn with a 3rd 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, 不要紧 is written 不要緊. The pronunciation is the same.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type buyaojin with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 不要紧 from the suggestions. Typing buyaojin into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
不要紧 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.