不得已

不得已 bùdéyǐ

No choice but to

What 不得已 means

  1. No choice but 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 不得已 will read it the same way this page does.

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Character by character

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

不
bù
No (not)
得
dé / děi / de
Get; Have to (need)
已
yǐ
Already (to stop - ended)

How to write 不得已

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

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

不得已 in a sentence

他是不得已才向朋友借钱的。
Tā shì bùdéyǐ cái xiàng péngyou jièqián de.
He only borrowed money from a friend because he had no choice.
这是不得已的选择,不是最好的选择。
Zhè shì bùdéyǐ de xuǎnzé, bú shì zuì hǎo de xuǎnzé.
This is a choice made out of necessity, not the best choice.

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

Questions about 不得已

What does 不得已 mean in English?

不得已 is pronounced bùdéyǐ and means No choice but to.

How do you pronounce 不得已?

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

What are the characters in 不得已?

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

Is 不得已 an HSK word?

Yes — 不得已 is on the official HSK 6 vocabulary list. You can study it with the rest of that list on the HSK 6 page.

Studied around the same time

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Translate a whole sentence containing 不得已 with the Chinese to Pinyin translator, study it alongside the rest of HSK 6, drill it with HSK flashcards, or save it above and review it on your review deck.

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