HSK 4 · Function Words

差不多 chàbuduō “almost” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 差不多 means

  1. almost
  2. nearly
  3. more or less
  4. about the same
  5. good enough
More meanings from CC-CEDICT
  • not bad

How to say 差不多

  • Pitch chart of the fourth tone: falls from high to low, 5 to 1 on the five-level scale差chà4th tone, falling
  • Pitch chart of the neutral tone: short and light, with no contour of its own不buneutral tone, light and short
  • Pitch chart of the first tone: stays high and level, 5 to 5 on the five-level scale多duō1st tone, high and level

Grey pinyin is a neutral tone: say it short and light. More on the neutral tone

差不多 in a sentence

  1. 我差不多完成了。

    Wǒ chàbuduō wánchéng le.

    I’m almost done.

    Sentence #333787 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  2. 她差不多和你一样高。

    Tā chàbuduō hé nǐ yíyàng gāo.

    She’s almost as tall as you.

    Sentence #407293 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  3. 差不多六点了。

    Chàbuduō liù diǎn le.

    It’s almost six o’clock.

    Sentence #609853 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 差不多 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 差 (chà) with each of its parts in a different colour
差chàdifferent
  • 羊sheep · yáng
  • 工work · gōng
The character 不 (bù) drawn as one shape
不bùno; not solight in 差不多

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 多 (duō) with each of its parts in a different colour
多duōmany; much; more; a lot of
  • 夕evening · xī
  • 夕evening · xī

Memory aidTwo 夕 shapes stacked up: many.

How to write 差不多

差 9 strokes · 不 4 strokes · 多 6 strokes

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

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

Words related to 差不多

Words with 差

差chà · differ from出差chūchāi · to go on an official or business trip时差shíchā · time difference差距chājù · gap误差wùchā · error差别chābié · difference偏差piānchā · deviation相差xiāngchà · to differ

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 多

多duō · many多少duōshǎo · how many多么duōme · how好多hǎoduō · a lot of许多xǔduō · many多余duōyú · superfluous多亏duōkuī · thanks to多元化duōyuánhuà · diversification见多识广jiànduōshíguǎng · well-informed and experienced

More words: Particles & Connectors

比如bǐrú · for example不得不bùdébù · have no choice or option but to不过búguò · but不仅bùjǐn · not only (… but also)从来cónglái · always大概dàgài · roughly大约dàyuē · approximately到处dàochù · everywhere

FAQs

差不多 (chàbuduō) means “almost” or “nearly”. It is an HSK 4 word.
Say it chàbuduō: chà with a 4th tone, then bu with a neutral tone, then duō with a 1st tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 差不多 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type chabuduo with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 差不多 from the suggestions. Typing chabuduo into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
差不多 is an HSK 4 word in the 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.