HSK 5 · Emotions

无奈 wúnài “to have no alternative” in Chinese

Traditional 無奈

What 无奈 means

  1. to have no alternative
  2. frustrated
  3. exasperated
  4. helpless
  5. (conjunction) but unfortunately

How to say 无奈

  • Pitch chart of the second tone: rises from mid to high, 3 to 5 on the five-level scale无wú2nd tone, rising
  • Pitch chart of the fourth tone: falls from high to low, 5 to 1 on the five-level scale奈nài4th tone, falling

无奈 in a sentence

  1. 他对生活感到很无奈。

    Tā duì shēnghuó gǎndào hěn wúnài.

    He feels helpless about his life.

    Sentence #4948520 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  2. 我无奈只得跟随着她。

    Wǒ wúnài zhǐdé gēnsuí zhe tā.

    I had no choice but to follow her.

    Sentence #4948541 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 无奈 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 无 (wú) with each of its parts in a different colour
无wúnot to have
  • 一one · yī
  • 尢lame · wāng
The character 奈 (nài) with each of its parts in a different colour
奈nàiused for its phonetic value in
  • 大big · dà
  • 示sign · shì

How to write 无奈

无 4 strokes · 奈 8 strokes

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

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

Words related to 无奈

Words with 无

无wú · not to have无聊wúliáo · bored无论wúlùn · no matter what or how无法wúfǎ · to be unable to无数wúshù · countless无所谓wúsuǒwèi · to not matter无赖wúlài · rogue无比wúbǐ · incomparable无耻wúchǐ · shameless无辜wúgū · innocent

More words: Emotions & Attitudes

疼爱téng'ài · to love dearly痛苦tòngkǔ · pain痛快tòngkuài · delighted微笑wēixiào · smile无所谓wúsuǒwèi · to not matter消极xiāojí · negative心理xīnlǐ · psychology幸运xìngyùn · fortunate

FAQs

无奈 (wúnài) means “to have no alternative” or “frustrated”. It is an HSK 5 word.
Say it wúnài: wú with a 2nd tone, then nài with a 4th tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
In Traditional characters, used in Taiwan and Hong Kong, 无奈 is written 無奈. The pronunciation is the same.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type wunai with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 无奈 from the suggestions. Typing wunai into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
无奈 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.