HSK 6 · Adjectives

不像话 búxiànghuà “unreasonable” in Chinese

Traditional 不像話

What 不像话 means

  1. unreasonable
  2. outrageous
  3. shocking

How to say 不像话

  • 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像xiàng4th tone, falling
  • Pitch chart of the fourth tone: falls from high to low, 5 to 1 on the five-level scale话huà4th 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

不像话 in a sentence

  1. 这太不像话。

    Zhè tài búxiànghuà.

    This is outrageous.

    Sentence #3883059 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 不像话 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 不像话

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 像 (xiàng) with each of its parts in a different colour
像xiàngto resemble
  • 亻person form of 人 · rénMeaning part
  • 象elephant · xiàngSound part

亻 hints at the meaning (person); 象 (xiàng) hints at the sound. Compare it with xiàng.

The character 话 (huà) with each of its parts in a different colour
话huàdialect
  • 讠speech form of 言 · yán
  • 舌tongue · shé

Memory aidSpeech 讠 from the tongue 舌: talk, words.

How to write 不像话

不 4 strokes · 像 13 strokes · 话 8 strokes

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

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

Words related to 不像话

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 像

像xiàng · be like好像hǎoxiàng · as if偶像ǒuxiàng · idol肖像xiàoxiàng · portrait

Words with 话

电话diànhuà · telephone打电话dǎ diànhuà · to make a phone call说话shuōhuà · to speak的话dehuà · if (ends a conditional clause)对话duìhuà · dialogue笑话xiàohua · joke普通话pǔtōnghuà · Mandarin废话fèihuà · nonsense实话shíhuà · truth神话shénhuà · legend

More words: Adjectives

闭塞bìsè · isolated博大精深bódàjīngshēn · broad and profound (of knowledge or culture)薄弱bóruò · weak不可思议bùkěsīyì · unimaginable不相上下bùxiāngshàngxià · equally matched苍白cāngbái · pale仓促cāngcù · hurried残酷cánkù · cruel

FAQs

不像话 (búxiànghuà) means “unreasonable” or “outrageous”. It is an HSK 6 word.
Say it búxiànghuà: bú with a 2nd tone, then xiàng with a 4th tone, then huà 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, 不像话 is written 不像話. The pronunciation is the same.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type buxianghua with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 不像话 from the suggestions. Typing buxianghua into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
不像话 is an HSK 6 word in the HSK 2.0 word lists.

Turn words into conversations

A dictionary gives you the words. A native teacher shows you how to use them. Start with a free 30-minute intro call.

Book a free intro call

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.