HSK 3.0 Level 1 · Particles

不要 bùyào “don’t!” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 不要 means

  1. don’t!
  2. must not

How to say 不要

  • 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 fourth tone: falls from high to low, 5 to 1 on the five-level scale要yào4th tone, falling

不要 in a sentence

  1. 不要跑！

    Búyào pǎo!

    Don’t run!

    Sentence #10022451 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  2. 请不要说得那么快。

    Qǐng búyào shuō de nàme kuài.

    Please don’t speak so fast.

    Sentence #746035 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  3. 不要忘了票。

    Búyào wàng le piào.

    Don’t forget the ticket.

    Sentence #389446 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 不要 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 要 (yào) with each of its parts in a different colour
要yàoto want; to need; to ask for
  • 覀cover form of 襾 · yà
  • 女woman · nǚ

Memory aidOnce drawn as a person with hands on the waist, its first meaning. That meaning moved to 腰 (yāo), and 要 became “to want”.

How to write 不要

不 4 strokes · 要 9 strokes

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

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

Words related to 不要

Words with 不

不bù · no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不行bùxíng · won’t do

Words with 要

要yào · want快要kuàiyào · about to需要xūyào · to need要求yāoqiú · to request重要zhòngyào · important主要zhǔyào · main就要jiùyào · about to要是yàoshi · if只要zhǐyào · if only必要bìyào · necessary

More words: Particles & Function Words

们men · plural marker for pronouns一些yīxiē · some但dàn · but快要kuàiyào · about to那么nàme · like that那样nàyàng · that kind这么zhème · so much这样zhèyàng · this kind of

FAQs

不要 (bùyào) means “don’t!” or “must not”. It is an HSK 3.0 Level 1 word.
Say it bùyào: bù with a 4th tone, then yào with a 4th tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 不要 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type buyao with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 不要 from the suggestions. Typing buyao into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
不要 is an HSK 3.0 Level 1 word in the official 2021 syllabus, and it is on our HSK 3.0 Band 1 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.