HSK 5 · Function Words

怪不得 guàibude “no wonder!” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 怪不得 means

  1. no wonder!
  2. so that’s why!

How to say 怪不得

  • Pitch chart of the fourth tone: falls from high to low, 5 to 1 on the five-level scale怪guài4th 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 neutral tone: short and light, with no contour of its own得deneutral tone, light and short

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

怪不得 in a sentence

  1. 这家商店人员的态度特好，怪不得顾客也好多。

    Zhè jiā shāngdiàn rényuán de tàidu tè hǎo, guàibude gùkè yě hǎoduō.

    The staff in this shop are really friendly – no wonder they’ve got so many customers.

    Sentence #2217159 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 怪不得 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 怪 (guài) with each of its parts in a different colour
怪guàiodd; strange; uncanny
  • 忄heart form of 心 · xīn
  • 圣holy · kū
The character 不 (bù) drawn as one shape
不bùno; not solight in 怪不得

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 得 (de) with each of its parts in a different colour
得destructural particle: used after a verb
  • 彳step · chì
  • 旦dawn · dàn
  • 寸inch · cùn

Memory aidA hand 寸 picking up a shell, once used as money, while out on the road 彳: to get.

How to write 怪不得

怪 8 strokes · 不 4 strokes · 得 11 strokes

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

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

Words related to 怪不得

Words with 怪

奇怪qíguài · strange难怪nánguài · (it’s) no wonder (that…)责怪zéguài · to blame古怪gǔguài · strange

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 得

得de · particle linking a verb to how it is done (e.g. 跑得快觉得juéde · to feel记得jìde · remember得到dédào · to get得分défēn · to score (points)懂得dǒngde · to understand认得rènde · to recognise获得huòdé · to obtain得意déyì · proud of oneself值得zhíde · to be worth

More words: Function Words & Grammar

赶快gǎnkuài · quickly格外géwài · especially各自gèzì · each根gēn · root果然guǒrán · really哈hā · ha! (laughter)何必hébì · there is no need何况hékuàng · let alone

FAQs

怪不得 (guàibude) means “no wonder!” or “so that’s why!”. It is an HSK 5 word.
Say it guàibude: guài with a 4th tone, then bu with a neutral tone, then de with a neutral tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 怪不得 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type guaibude with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 怪不得 from the suggestions. Typing guaibude into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
怪不得 is an HSK 5 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.