HSK 5 · Adjectives

必要 bìyào “necessary” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 必要 means

  1. necessary
  2. essential
  3. indispensable
  4. required

How to say 必要

  • Pitch chart of the fourth tone: falls from high to low, 5 to 1 on the five-level scale必bì4th tone, falling
  • Pitch chart of the fourth tone: falls from high to low, 5 to 1 on the five-level scale要yào4th tone, falling

必要 in a sentence

  1. 我有必要向他解释原因吗？

    Wǒ yǒu bìyào xiàng tā jiěshì yuányīn ma?

    Do I need to explain the reason to him?

    Sentence #334843 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  2. 没必要叫出租车。

    Méi bìyào jiào chūzūchē.

    There’s no need to call a taxi.

    Sentence #2052722 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  3. 你做了必要的事。

    Nǐ zuò le bìyào de shì.

    You did what was necessary.

    Sentence #6070974 from Tatoeba

How 必要 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 必 (bì) with each of its parts in a different colour
必bìcertainly
  • 心heart · xīn
  • 丿slash · piě
The character 要 (yào) with each of its parts in a different colour
要yàoto want; to need; to ask for
  • 覀cover form of 襾 · yà
  • 女woman · nǚ

Memory aidOnce drawn as a person with hands on the waist, its first meaning. That meaning moved to 腰 (yāo), and 要 became “to want”.

How to write 必要

必 5 strokes · 要 9 strokes

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

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

Words related to 必要

Words with 必

必须bìxū · must必然bìrán · inevitable何必hébì · there is no need未必wèibì · not necessarily势必shìbì · bound to务必wùbì · must

Words with 要

不要bùyào · don’t!要yào · want快要kuàiyào · about to需要xūyào · to need要求yāoqiú · to request重要zhòngyào · important主要zhǔyào · main就要jiùyào · about to要是yàoshi · if只要zhǐyào · if only

More words: Adjectives

暗àn · dark薄báo · thin宝贵bǎoguì · valuable悲观bēiguān · pessimistic不安bù'ān · uneasy不得了bùdéliǎo · extremely不耐烦bùnàifán · impatient不足bùzú · insufficient

FAQs

必要 (bìyào) means “necessary” or “essential”. It is an HSK 5 word.
Say it bìyào: bì with a 4th tone, then yào with a 4th tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 必要 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type biyao with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 必要 from the suggestions. Typing biyao into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
必要 is an HSK 5 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.