HSK 6 · Function Words

大不了 dàbuliǎo “at worst” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 大不了 means

  1. at worst
  2. if worst comes to worst
  3. serious
  4. (usu. in the negative) serious
  5. alarming

How to say 大不了

  • Pitch chart of the fourth tone: falls from high to low, 5 to 1 on the five-level scale大dà4th 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 third tone: dips low then rises, 2 to 1 to 4 on the five-level scale了liǎo3rd tone, dipping

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

大不了 in a sentence

  1. 这没什么大不了的。

    Zhè méi shénme dàbuliǎo de.

    It’s no big deal.

    Sentence #2456036 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 大不了 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 大 (dà) with each of its parts in a different colour
大dàbig; large; great
  • 一one · yī
  • 人person · rén

Memory aidA person standing with arms stretched wide: big.

The character 不 (bù) drawn as one shape
不bùno; not solight in 大不了

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 了 (liǎo) with each of its parts in a different colour
了liǎoto finish
  • 乛part of the character
  • 亅hook · jué

How to write 大不了

大 3 strokes · 不 4 strokes · 了 2 strokes

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

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

Words related to 大不了

Words with 大

大dà · big大学dàxué · university大学生dàxuéshēng · university student大家dàjiā · everyone大人dàren · adult大衣dàyī · overcoat大小dàxiǎo · size大熊猫dàxióngmāo · giant panda大夫dàifu · doctor大概dàgài · roughly

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 了

了le · aspect particle了解liǎojiě · comprehend除了chúle · besides为了wèile · in order to受不了shòubùliǎo · unbearable不得了bùdéliǎo · extremely了不起liǎobuqǐ · amazing一目了然yímùliǎorán · clear at a glance

More words: Function Words & Grammar

不由得bùyóude · can’t help (doing)不止bùzhǐ · more than成心chéngxīn · on purpose除chú · except当面dāngmiàn · face to face大肆dàsì · wantonly大体dàtǐ · on the whole大致dàzhì · roughly

FAQs

大不了 (dàbuliǎo) means “at worst” or “if worst comes to worst”. It is an HSK 6 word.
Say it dàbuliǎo: dà with a 4th tone, then bu with a neutral tone, then liǎo with a 3rd tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 大不了 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type dabuliao with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 大不了 from the suggestions. Typing dabuliao into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
大不了 is an HSK 6 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.