HSK 3.0 Level 2 · Adjectives

不错 bùcuò “not bad” in Chinese

Traditional 不錯

What 不错 means

  1. not bad
  2. pretty good
  3. correct
  4. right

How to say 不错

  • 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 fourth tone: falls from high to low, 5 to 1 on the five-level scale错cuò4th tone, falling

不错 in a sentence

  1. 今晚的天气不错。

    Jīnwǎn de tiānqì búcuò.

    The weather is nice tonight.

    Sentence #2437256 from Tatoeba

  2. 这个主意不错。

    Zhè ge zhǔyi búcuò.

    That’s a good idea.

    Sentence #1413703 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  3. 听起来不错。

    Tīng qǐlai búcuò.

    Sounds good.

    Sentence #10783861 from Tatoeba

How 不错 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 错 (cuò) with each of its parts in a different colour
错cuòmistake
  • 钅gold form of 金 · jīn
  • 昔past · xī

How to write 不错

不 4 strokes · 错 13 strokes

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

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

Words related to 不错

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不行bùxíng · won’t do

Words with 错

错cuò · wrong错误cuòwù · mistaken

More words: Adjectives

晴qíng · sunny阴yīn · cloudy好吃hǎochī · delicious白色báisè · white黑色hēisè · black红色hóngsè · red (colour)绿色lǜsè · green没意思méiyìsi · boring

FAQs

不错 (bùcuò) means “not bad” or “pretty good”. It is an HSK 3.0 Level 2 word.
Say it bùcuò: bù with a 4th tone, then cuò with a 4th tone. 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, 不错 is written 不錯. The pronunciation is the same.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type bucuo with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 不错 from the suggestions. Typing bucuo into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
不错 is an HSK 3.0 Level 2 word in the official 2021 syllabus, and it is on our HSK 3.0 Band 2 word list. It is not on the older 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.