HSK 6 · Emotions

巴不得 bābudé “to be eager to” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 巴不得 means

  1. to be eager to
  2. to wish earnestly
  3. (coll.) to be eager for
  4. to long for
  5. to look forward to

How to say 巴不得

  • Pitch chart of the first tone: stays high and level, 5 to 5 on the five-level scale巴bā1st tone, high and level
  • Pitch chart of the neutral tone: short and light, with no contour of its own不buneutral tone, light and short
  • Pitch chart of the second tone: rises from mid to high, 3 to 5 on the five-level scale得dé2nd tone, rising

Grey pinyin is a neutral tone: say it short and light. More on the neutral tone

巴不得 in a sentence

  1. 放假了，我巴不得马上回家。

    Fàngjià le, wǒ bābudé mǎshàng huíjiā.

    The holidays have started, and I can’t wait to go home.

    Sentence by WillyChina

  2. 他巴不得早点儿下班。

    Tā bābudé zǎodiǎnr xiàbān.

    He’s itching to finish work early.

    Sentence by WillyChina

How 巴不得 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 巴 (ba) drawn as one shape
巴bāto long for

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

The character 不 (bù) drawn as one shape
不buno; 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.

How to write 巴不得

巴 4 strokes · 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.

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

Words related to 巴不得

Words with 巴

尾巴wěiba · tail巴结bājie · to fawn on

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: Emotions & Attitudes

珍惜zhēnxī · to treasure自豪zìháo · proud (of an achievement)爱不释手àibúshìshǒu · to love something too much to put it down爱戴àidài · to love and respect抱负bàofù · aspiration悲哀bēi'āi · sorrowful鄙视bǐshì · to despise不屑一顾búxièyígù · to disdain

FAQs

巴不得 (bābudé) means “to be eager to” or “to wish earnestly”. It is an HSK 6 word.
Say it bābudé: bā with a 1st tone, then bu with a neutral tone, then dé with a 2nd tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 巴不得 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type babude with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 巴不得 from the suggestions. Typing babude into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
巴不得 is an HSK 6 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 written by WillyChina. Character parts and stroke order from Make Me a Hanzi.