HanTrace

不得不

bùdébù
HSK 3

“Have no choice or option but to” in Chinese is 不得不 (bùdébù).

Meaning

  • have no choice or option but to
  • cannot but
  • have to
Show 2 more meanings
  • can't help it
  • can't avoid

Example

她不得不哭。

She could not refrain from tears.

Example sentence from Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0).

Characters

bùHSK 14 strokesno; not sodéHSK 111 strokesto obtain

More HSK 3 words

保留bǎoliúto keepHSK 3动力dònglìmotive powerHSK 3工具gōngjùtoolHSK 3面对miànduìto face; to confrontHSK 3纪录jìlùvariant of 記錄|记录[ji4 lu4] (but in Taiwan, not for the verb sense "to record")HSK 3邮箱yóuxiāngmailboxHSK 3合格hégéto meet the standard requiredHSK 3保险bǎoxiǎninsuranceHSK 3工夫gōngfuperiod of time (may be months, or mere seconds)HSK 3支付zhīfùto pay (money)HSK 3