HSK 6 · Function Words

不禁 bùjīn “can’t help (doing)” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 不禁 means

  1. can’t help (doing)
  2. can’t refrain from
  3. can’t help (doing sth)

How to say 不禁

  • 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 first tone: stays high and level, 5 to 5 on the five-level scale禁jīn1st tone, high and level

不禁 in a sentence

  1. 我不禁为他感到难过。

    Wǒ bùjīn wèi tā gǎndào nánguò.

    I can’t help feeling sorry for him.

    Sentence #785242 from Tatoeba · converted to simplified characters · translation adapted

  2. 看见这副景象,我不禁叹了口气。

    Kànjiàn zhè fù jǐngxiàng, wǒ bùjīn tàn le kǒuqì.

    Seeing this scene, I couldn’t help sighing.

    Sentence #2367624 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  3. 我每次看到你都不禁想起你母亲来。

    Wǒ měicì kàndào nǐ dōu bùjīn xiǎngqǐ nǐ mǔqīn lái.

    Every time I see you, I can’t help thinking about your mother.

    Sentence #6023414 from Tatoeba · converted to simplified characters · translation adapted

How 不禁 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 禁 (jìn) with each of its parts in a different colour
禁jīnto endure
  • 林forest · línSound part
  • 示sign · shìMeaning part

示 hints at the meaning (sign); 林 (lín) hints at the sound. Compare it with jīn.

How to write 不禁

不 4 strokes · 禁 13 strokes

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

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

Words related to 不禁

Words with 不

Words with 禁

More words: Function Words & Grammar

FAQs

不禁 (bùjīn) means “can’t help (doing)” or “can’t refrain from”. It is an HSK 6 word.
Say it bùjīn: bù with a 4th tone, then jīn with a 1st tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 不禁 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type bujin with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 不禁 from the suggestions. Typing bujin into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
不禁 is an HSK 6 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.