不得不

不得不 bùdébù

Forced to (can’t avoid to - have no choice but to - have to)

What 不得不 means

  1. Forced to (can’t avoid to - have no choice but to - have to)

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 不得不 will read it the same way this page does.

Character by character

不得不 is written with 3 characters. Chinese words are usually easier to remember once you can see what each part contributes.

No (not)
dé / děi / de
Get; Have to (need)
No (not)

How to write 不得不

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

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

不得不 in a sentence

下雨了,我们不得不回家。
Xià yǔ le, wǒmen bù dé bù huí jiā.
It started raining, so we had to go home.
他不得不放弃这次机会。
Tā bù dé bù fàngqì zhè cì jīhuì.
He had no choice but to give up this opportunity.

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

Questions about 不得不

What does 不得不 mean in English?

不得不 is pronounced bùdébù and means Forced to (can’t avoid to - have no choice but to - have to).

How do you pronounce 不得不?

不得不 is bùdébù in pinyin — written budebu without tone marks. Press the audio button on this page to hear it spoken by a native voice.

What are the characters in 不得不?

不得不 is written with 3 characters: 不 (bù) No (not), 得 (dé / děi / de) Get; Have to (need), 不 (bù) No (not). Knowing the parts is usually how the whole word becomes memorable.

Is 不得不 an HSK word?

Yes — 不得不 is on the official HSK 4 vocabulary list. You can study it with the rest of that list on the HSK 4 page.

Studied around the same time

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Translate a whole sentence containing 不得不 with the Chinese to Pinyin translator, study it alongside the rest of HSK 4, drill it with HSK flashcards, or save it above and review it on your review deck.

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