HSK 1 · Particles

不 bù “no” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 不 means

  1. no, not
  2. not so
  3. (bound form) not
  4. un-

How to say 不

  • Pitch chart of the fourth tone: falls from high to low, 5 to 1 on the five-level scale不bù4th tone, falling

不 in a sentence

  1. 我不知道现在应该做什么。

    Wǒ bù zhīdao xiànzài yīnggāi zuò shénme.

    I don’t know what I should do now.

    Sentence #1314245 from Tatoeba

  2. 我不知道他什么时候来。

    Wǒ bù zhīdao tā shénme shíhou lái.

    I don’t know when he’ll come.

    Sentence #3636661 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  3. 我不知道，他也不知道。

    Wǒ bù zhīdao, tā yě bù zhīdao.

    I don’t know and neither does he.

    Sentence #889654 from Tatoeba

How 不 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.

How to write 不

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

Words related to 不

Words with 不

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不行bùxíng · won’t do

More words: Particles & Connectors

的de · possessive particle了le · aspect particle吗ma · question particle呢ne · question particle都dōu · all很hěn · very太tài · too和hé · and

FAQs

不 (bù) means “no, not” or “not so”. It is an HSK 1 word, so it is one of the words learners meet early.
Say it bù: bù with a 4th tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 不 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type bu with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 不 from the suggestions. Typing bu into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
不 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.