Dictionary › 不得已

不得已

bù dé yǐ

Old HSK 6 HSK 3.0 level 7-9 3-character word

不得已 (bù dé yǐ) means "to act against one's will; to have no alternative but to; to have to". It is an HSK 3.0 level 7-9 word, and was HSK 6 in the old six-level list.

What 不得已 means

1. to act against one's will
2. to have no alternative but to
3. to have to
4. to have no choice
5. must

The characters in 不得已

• 不bùno; not so; (bound form) not; un-
• 得destructural particle: used after a verb (or adjective as main verb), linking it to…
• 已yǐalready; to stop; then

Words starting with 不得已

• 不得已而为之bù dé yǐ ér wéi zhīto have no other choice; to be the last resort

Words containing 不得已

• 迫不得已pò bù dé yǐto have no alternative (idiom); compelled by circumstances; forced into sth
• 万不得已wàn bù dé yǐonly when absolutely essential (idiom); as a last resort

Where 不得已 is taught

In the GraphChinese course it is part of HSK 6 Vocabulary · bó–bǔ (HSK 6), each one a topic in the dependency graph of HSK 1–6 that opens only once its prerequisites are solid.

Go deeper

• Every HSK 6 word, with the rest of its level.
• The four tones and the neutral tone, to read bù dé yǐ correctly.
• Look up another word in the free dictionary.