HSK 1 · Greetings

不客气 bú kèqi “you’re welcome” in Chinese

Traditional 不客氣

What 不客气 means

  1. you’re welcome
  2. don’t mention it
  3. impolite
  4. rude
  5. blunt

How to say 不客气

  • 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客kè4th tone, falling
  • Pitch chart of the neutral tone: short and light, with no contour of its own气qineutral tone, light and short

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

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

不客气 in a sentence

  1. 不客气。

    Bú kèqi.

    You’re welcome.

    Sentence #700670 from Tatoeba

  2. Also: “I won’t go easy on you” (a warning)

    你要是再给我们公司出洋相，我可就不客气了。

    Nǐ yàoshi zài gěi wǒmen gōngsī chūyángxiàng, wǒ kě jiù bú kèqi le.

    If you make fun of our company again, we won’t go easy on you.

    Sentence #3709292 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 不客气 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 不客气

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 客 (kè) with each of its parts in a different colour
客kècustomer; visitor; guest
  • 宀roof · mián
  • 各individual · gè

Memory aidSomeone 各 welcomed under your roof 宀: a guest.

The character 气 (qì) drawn as one shape
气qìgas; airlight in 不客气

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

Memory aidDrawn from layers of vapour rising: air, steam, breath.

How to write 不客气

不 4 strokes · 客 9 strokes · 气 4 strokes

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

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

Words related to 不客气

Words with 不

不bù · no不要bùyào · don’t!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不行bùxíng · won’t do

Words with 客

客人kèrén · guest游客yóukè · tourist请客qǐngkè · to treat someone (to a meal)做客zuòkè · to be a guest客厅kètīng · drawing room (room for arriving guests)顾客gùkè · customer好客hàokè · hospitable客观kèguān · objective客户kèhù · client

Words with 气

天气tiānqì · weather生气shēngqì · angry气qì · air力气lìqi · strength空气kōngqì · air气候qìhòu · climate脾气píqi · temper淘气táoqì · naughty小气xiǎoqì · stingy气氛qìfēn · atmosphere

More words: Greetings & Phrases

谢谢xièxie · thank you再见zàijiàn · goodbye对不起duìbuqǐ · sorry没关系méi guānxi · it’s okay喂wéi · hello (on phone)

FAQs

不客气 (bú kèqi) means “you’re welcome” or “don’t mention it”. It is an HSK 1 word, so it is one of the words learners meet early.
Say it bú kèqi: bú with a 2nd tone, then kè with a 4th tone, then qi with a neutral 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, 不客气 is written 不客氣. The pronunciation is the same.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type bukeqi with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 不客气 from the suggestions. Typing bukeqi into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
不客气 is an HSK 1 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.