HSK 3.0 Band 3 list · Measure Words

不少 bùshǎo “quite a few” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 不少 means

  1. quite a few
  2. many
  3. a good number of

How to say 不少

  • 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少shǎo3rd tone, dipping

不少 in a sentence

  1. 今天有不少学生缺课。

    Jīntiān yǒu bùshǎo xuésheng quēkè.

    Quite a few students are absent today.

    Sentence #348886 from Tatoeba

  2. 她在这里有不少朋友。

    Tā zài zhèlǐ yǒu bùshǎo péngyou.

    She has quite a few friends here.

    Sentence #349760 from Tatoeba · converted to simplified characters · translation adapted

  3. 我学了不少法语。

    Wǒ xué le bùshǎo Fǎyǔ.

    I’ve learnt quite a bit of French.

    Sentence #7980304 from Tatoeba · converted to simplified characters · translation adapted

How 不少 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 少 (shǎo) with each of its parts in a different colour
少shǎofew
  • 小small · xiǎo
  • 丿slash · piě

Memory aidSmall 小 with one more stroke 丿: few, little.

How to write 不少

不 4 strokes · 少 4 strokes

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

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

Words related to 不少

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不见bújiàn · to be missing不行bùxíng · won’t do

Words with 少

少shǎo · few多少duōshǎo · how many减少jiǎnshǎo · to lessen缺少quēshǎo · lack至少zhìshǎo · at least青少年qīngshàonián · adolescent

More words: Measure Words & Quantities

句jù · (m.w. for sentences)道dào · (m.w. for orders度dù · degree

FAQs

不少 (bùshǎo) means “quite a few” or “many”. It is on our HSK 3.0 Band 3 word list.
Say it bùshǎo: bù with a 4th tone, then shǎo with a 3rd tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 不少 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type bushao with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 不少 from the suggestions. Typing bushao into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
不少 is not listed as a separate word in the official 2021 HSK 3.0 syllabus, but it is on our HSK 3.0 Band 3 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.