HSK 3.0 Level 3 · Time

不久 bùjiǔ “soon” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 不久 means

  1. soon
  2. before long
  3. not long after
  4. before too long
  5. soon after

How to say 不久

  • 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 third tone: dips low then rises, 2 to 1 to 4 on the five-level scale久jiǔ3rd tone, dipping

不久 in a sentence

  1. 他们刚结婚不久。

    Tāmen gāng jiéhūn bùjiǔ.

    They got married not long ago.

    Sentence #10320818 from Tatoeba · converted to simplified characters · translation adapted

  2. 我希望不久以后你又能好起来。

    Wǒ xīwàng bùjiǔ yǐhòu nǐ yòu néng hǎo qǐlai.

    I hope you’ll be well again before long.

    Sentence #336861 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  3. 我们不久就能到月球旅行了。

    Wǒmen bùjiǔ jiù néng dào yuèqiú lǚxíng le.

    Before long we’ll be able to travel to the moon.

    Sentence #534201 from Tatoeba · converted to simplified characters · translation adapted

How 不久 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 久 (jiǔ) drawn as one shape
久jiǔlong

久 is a single shape of 3 strokes. Learn it whole, then watch its stroke order below.

How to write 不久

不 4 strokes · 久 3 strokes

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

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

Words related to 不久

Words with 不

Words with 久

More words: Time & Dates

FAQs

不久 (bùjiǔ) means “soon” or “before long”. It is an HSK 3.0 Level 3 word.
Say it bùjiǔ: bù with a 4th tone, then jiǔ with a 3rd tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 不久 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type bujiu with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 不久 from the suggestions. Typing bujiu into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
不久 is an HSK 3.0 Level 3 word in the official 2021 syllabus, and it is on our HSK 3.0 Band 5 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.