HSK 6 · Emotions

恨不得 hènbude “to be dying to” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 恨不得 means

  1. to be dying to
  2. to wish one could
  3. wishing one could do sth
  4. to hate to be unable
  5. itching to do sth

How to say 恨不得

  • Pitch chart of the fourth tone: falls from high to low, 5 to 1 on the five-level scale恨hèn4th 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

恨不得 in a sentence

  1. 我饿得恨不得马上吃饭。

    Wǒ è de hènbude mǎshàng chīfàn.

    I’m so hungry I could eat right now.

    Sentence by WillyChina

  2. 听到这个好消息，她恨不得马上告诉所有人。

    Tīngdào zhè ge hǎo xiāoxi, tā hènbude mǎshàng gàosu suǒyǒu rén.

    When she heard the good news, she was dying to tell everyone straight away.

    Sentence by WillyChina

How 恨不得 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 恨 (hèn) with each of its parts in a different colour
恨hènto hate
  • 忄heart form of 心 · xīnMeaning part
  • 艮stopping · gěnSound part

忄 hints at the meaning (heart); 艮 (gěn) hints at the sound. Compare it with hèn.

The character 不 (bù) drawn as one shape
不bùno; not solight in 恨不得

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 恨不得

恨 9 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.

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

Words related to 恨不得

Words with 恨

恨hèn · to hate悔恨huǐhèn · remorse

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: Emotions & Attitudes

关怀guānhuái · to care for孤独gūdú · lonely顾虑gùlǜ · worry过瘾guòyǐn · to satisfy a craving狠心hěnxīn · heartless后顾之忧hòugùzhīyōu · worries back home欢乐huānlè · joy悔恨huǐhèn · remorse

FAQs

恨不得 (hènbude) means “to be dying to” or “to wish one could”. It is an HSK 6 word.
Say it hènbude: hèn 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. 恨不得 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type henbude with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 恨不得 from the suggestions. Typing henbude into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
恨不得 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 written by WillyChina. Character parts and stroke order from Make Me a Hanzi.