HSK 3.0 Level 3 · Everyday Verbs

不见 bújiàn “to be missing” in Chinese

Traditional 不見

What 不见 means

  1. to be missing
  2. to have disappeared
  3. not to see
  4. not to meet

How to say 不见

  • 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见jiàn4th tone, falling

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

不见 in a sentence

  1. 我的手机不见了，怎么办？

    Wǒ de shǒujī bújiàn le, zěnmebàn?

    My phone’s gone missing. What should I do?

    Sentence #420878 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  2. 他最终发现他弟弟不见了。

    Tā zuìzhōng fāxiàn tā dìdi bújiàn le.

    He finally realised his younger brother was missing.

    Sentence #336031 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  3. 好久不见。你怎么样？

    Hǎojiǔ bújiàn. Nǐ zěnmeyàng?

    Long time no see. How are you?

    Sentence #1754832 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 不见 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 不见

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 见 (jiàn) with each of its parts in a different colour
见jiànto see
  • 冂down box · jiōng
  • 儿legs · ér

Memory aidSimplified from 見: a big eye 目 on top of a person 儿: to see.

How to write 不见

不 4 strokes · 见 4 strokes

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

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

Words related to 不见

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不行bùxíng · won’t do

Words with 见

看见kànjiàn · to see再见zàijiàn · goodbye听见tīngjiàn · to hear见jiàn · to see见面jiànmiàn · meet/see somebody见到jiàndào · to see遇见yùjiàn · to meet (by chance)常见chángjiàn · common意见yìjiàn · idea可见kějiàn · it can clearly be seen (that this is the case)

More words: Everyday Verbs

收到shōudào · to receive养yǎng · to raise (animals)爬pá · to climb练liàn · to practise刷shuā · to brush分开fēnkāi · to separate遇见yùjiàn · to meet (by chance)刮guā · to blow (of wind)

FAQs

不见 (bújiàn) means “to be missing” or “to have disappeared”. It is an HSK 3.0 Level 3 word.
Say it bújiàn: bú with a 2nd tone, then jiàn with a 4th 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, 不见 is written 不見. The pronunciation is the same.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type bujian with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 不见 from the suggestions. Typing bujian into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
不见 is an HSK 3.0 Level 3 word in the official 2021 syllabus, and it is on our HSK 3.0 Band 4 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.