HSK 3.0 Level 3 · Adjectives

不行 bùxíng “won’t do” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 不行 means

  1. won’t do
  2. not allowed
  3. no good
  4. be out of the question
  5. be no good
More meanings from CC-CEDICT
  • not work
  • not be capable

How to say 不行

  • 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 second tone: rises from mid to high, 3 to 5 on the five-level scale行xíng2nd tone, rising

不行 in a sentence

  1. 恐怕不行。

    Kǒngpà bùxíng.

    I’m afraid not.

    Sentence #429322 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  2. 我觉得这主意不行。

    Wǒ juéde zhè zhǔyi bùxíng.

    I don’t think this idea will work.

    Sentence #8463547 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  3. 那种鞋子用来登山是不行的。

    Nà zhǒng xiézi yònglái dēngshān shì bùxíng de.

    Those shoes won’t do for climbing.

    Sentence #351238 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 不行 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 行 (háng) with each of its parts in a different colour
行xíngto walk; to go; to travel
  • 彳step · chì
  • 亍to take small steps · chù

Memory aidDrawn from a crossroads: to walk, to go. It also means a row or line (háng).

How to write 不行

不 4 strokes · 行 6 strokes

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

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

Words related to 不行

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 行

银行yínháng · bank行李xíngli · luggage行李箱xínglǐxiāng · trunk自行车zìxíngchē · bike银行卡yínhángkǎ · bank card行xíng · OK进行jìnxíng · to advance流行liúxíng · popular举行jǔxíng · to hold (a meeting旅行lǚxíng · to travel

More words: Adjectives

长zhǎng · to grow重要zhòngyào · important主要zhǔyào · main不同bùtóng · different急jí · anxious大小dàxiǎo · size黄色huángsè · yellow有用yǒuyòng · useful

FAQs

不行 (bùxíng) means “won’t do” or “not allowed”. It is an HSK 3.0 Level 3 word.
Say it bùxíng: bù with a 4th tone, then xíng with a 2nd tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 不行 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type buxing with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 不行 from the suggestions. Typing buxing into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
不行 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.