必要

必要 bìyào

Essential

What 必要 means

  1. Essential

These meanings come from the same dictionary that powers the Chinese to Pinyin translator and the Chinese to English translator, so a whole sentence containing 必要 will read it the same way this page does.

Recognise a piece of 必要 but not the character it belongs to? Pick the parts in the component character finder and it will name the character for you — free for every character, with nothing to sign in to.

Character by character

必要 is written with 2 characters. Chinese words are usually easier to remember once you can see what each part contributes.

必
bì
Must (certainly)
要
yāo
Want (need - request - must - demand)

How to write 必要

Stroke order is not decoration — it is what makes handwriting legible and what dictionary lookup by stroke count depends on.

Practise 必要 on printable 田字格 sheets, trace it in the writing practice tool, or watch any other character in the Stroke Order Animator.

必要 in a sentence

没有必要为这件事生气。
Méiyǒu bìyào wèi zhè jiàn shì shēngqì.
There is no need to get angry over this.
必要的时候请给我打电话。
Bìyào de shíhou qǐng gěi wǒ dǎ diànhuà.
Please call me when it is necessary.

Every sentence on this site that uses 必要 is collected on the 必要 sentence page. Want pinyin above a sentence of your own? Paste it into the Pinyin Annotator.

Questions about 必要

What does 必要 mean in English?

必要 is pronounced bìyào and means Essential.

How do you pronounce 必要?

必要 is bìyào in pinyin — written biyao without tone marks. Press the audio button on this page to hear it spoken by a native voice.

What are the characters in 必要?

必要 is written with 2 characters: 必 (bì) Must (certainly), 要 (yāo) Want (need - request - must - demand). Knowing the parts is usually how the whole word becomes memorable.

Is 必要 an HSK word?

Yes — 必要 is on the official HSK 5 vocabulary list. You can study it with the rest of that list on the HSK 5 page.

Studied around the same time

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Translate a whole sentence containing 必要 with the Chinese to Pinyin translator, study it alongside the rest of HSK 5, drill it with HSK flashcards, or save it above and review it on your review deck.

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