HSK 3.0 Level 3 · Adverbs

不用 búyòng “no need to” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 不用 means

  1. no need to
  2. don’t have to
  3. need not

How to say 不用

  • 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用yòng4th 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

不用 in a sentence

  1. 不用找零钱了。

    Búyòng zhǎo língqián le.

    Keep the change.

    Sentence #1411509 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  2. 我不用打扫房间。

    Wǒ búyòng dǎsǎo fángjiān.

    I don’t have to clean my room.

    Sentence #472868 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  3. 今天不用上学。

    Jīntiān búyòng shàngxué.

    I don’t have to go to school today.

    Sentence #1866971 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 不用 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 不用

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 用 (yòng) drawn as one shape
用yòngto use; to make use of; to employ

用 is a single shape of 5 strokes. Learn it whole, then watch its stroke order below.

How to write 不用

不 4 strokes · 用 5 strokes

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

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

Words related to 不用

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 用

用yòng · to use有用yǒuyòng · useful常用chángyòng · commonly used信用卡xìnyòngkǎ · credit card使用shǐyòng · to use作用zuòyòng · effect利用lìyòng · to make use of应用yìngyòng · to put to use运用yùnyòng · to use实用shíyòng · practical

More words: Adverbs & Degree

就要jiùyào · about to只是zhǐshì · only总zǒng · always看来kànlái · it seems常cháng · often全quán · whole同样tóngyàng · likewise就是jiùshì · exactly

FAQs

不用 (búyòng) means “no need to” or “don’t have to”. It is an HSK 3.0 Level 3 word.
Say it búyòng: bú with a 2nd tone, then yòng 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.
Yes. 不用 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type buyong with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 不用 from the suggestions. Typing buyong into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
不用 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.