HSK 5 · Adjectives

不得了 bùdéliǎo “extremely” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 不得了 means

  1. extremely
  2. terribly
  3. (it’s) terrible!
  4. desperately serious
  5. disastrous
More meanings from CC-CEDICT
  • exceedingly

How to say 不得了

  • 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了liǎo3rd tone, dipping

不得了 in a sentence

  1. 我开心得不得了。

    Wǒ kāixīn de bùdéliǎo.

    I was over the moon!

    Sentence #12253231 from Tatoeba

  2. 一点也不便宜，贵得不得了。

    Yìdiǎn yě bù piányi, guì de bùdéliǎo.

    It’s not cheap at all – it’s incredibly expensive!

    Sentence #420262 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  3. 明天第一次陪中国代表团，我紧张得不得了。

    Míngtiān dìyī cì péi Zhōngguó dàibiǎotuán, wǒ jǐnzhāng de bùdéliǎo.

    Tomorrow is my first time accompanying a Chinese delegation, and I’m incredibly nervous.

    Sentence #1977258 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 不得了 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 了 (liǎo) with each of its parts in a different colour
了liǎoto finish
  • 乛part of the character
  • 亅hook · jué

How to write 不得了

不 4 strokes · 得 11 strokes · 了 2 strokes

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

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

Words related to 不得了

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 了

了le · aspect particle了解liǎojiě · comprehend除了chúle · besides为了wèile · in order to受不了shòubùliǎo · unbearable了不起liǎobuqǐ · amazing大不了dàbuliǎo · at worst一目了然yímùliǎorán · clear at a glance

More words: Adjectives

宝贵bǎoguì · valuable悲观bēiguān · pessimistic必要bìyào · necessary不安bù'ān · uneasy不耐烦bùnàifán · impatient不足bùzú · insufficient超级chāojí · super潮湿cháoshī · damp

FAQs

不得了 (bùdéliǎo) means “extremely” or “terribly”. It is an HSK 5 word.
Say it bùdéliǎo: bù with a 4th tone, then dé with a 2nd tone, then liǎo with a 3rd tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 不得了 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type budeliao with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 不得了 from the suggestions. Typing budeliao into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
不得了 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.