HSK 6 · Function Words

不得已 bùdéyǐ “to have no choice” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 不得已 means

  1. to have no choice
  2. reluctantly
  3. to act against one’s will
  4. to have no alternative but to
  5. to have to
More meanings from CC-CEDICT
  • must

How to say 不得已

  • 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 third tone: dips low then rises, 2 to 1 to 4 on the five-level scale已yǐ3rd tone, dipping

不得已 in a sentence

  1. 这不是我们的错……大家都是逼不得已才这么做。

    Zhè bú shì wǒmen de cuò…… Dàjiā dōu shì bī bùdéyǐ cái zhème zuò.

    It wasn’t our fault… We all had no choice but to do it.

    Sentence #2004549 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 不得已 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 已 (yǐ) drawn as one shape
已yǐalready

已 is a single shape of 3 strokes. Learn it whole, then watch its stroke order below.

How to write 不得已

不 4 strokes · 得 11 strokes · 已 3 strokes

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

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

Words related to 不得已

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

Words with 已

已经yǐjīng · already已yǐ · already而已éryǐ · that’s all

More words: Function Words & Grammar

本人běnrén · I本身běnshēn · itself便于biànyú · easy to并非bìngfēi · to not be不妨bùfáng · might as well不顾búgù · regardless of不禁bùjīn · can’t help (doing)不堪bùkān · unbearable

FAQs

不得已 (bùdéyǐ) means “to have no choice” or “reluctantly”. It is an HSK 6 word.
Say it bùdéyǐ: bù with a 4th tone, then dé with a 2nd tone, then yǐ with a 3rd tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 不得已 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type budeyi with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 不得已 from the suggestions. Typing budeyi into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
不得已 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 from Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR). Character parts and stroke order from Make Me a Hanzi.