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Mythic Mandarin

不得不 (bù dé bù): meaning and stroke order

不得不 (bù dé bù) means have no choice or option but to, cannot but, have to, can't help it, can't avoid.

不得不

Simplified
不得不
Traditional
不得不 (same form)
Pinyin
bù dé bù

Stroke order of 不得不

不

  • bù no; not so; (bound form) not; un-
  • 4 strokes

Stroke by stroke

得

  • dé to obtain; to get
  • dè used in 得瑟[de4 se5]
  • de structural particle: used after a verb (or adjective as main verb), linking it to following phrase indicating effect, degree, possibility etc
  • 11 strokes

Stroke by stroke

不

  • bù no; not so; (bound form) not; un-
  • 4 strokes

Stroke by stroke

Meaning of 不得不

  1. bù dé bù
    • have no choice or option but to
    • cannot but
    • have to
    • can't help it
    • can't avoid

Radicals of the characters

不
Radical 一 (Kangxi radical 1) · 4 strokes · built from 丆 and 卜
得
Radical 彳 (Kangxi radical 60) · 11 strokes · 彳 on the left, 㝵 on the right

Radicals and stroke counts: Unicode Unihan database. Structure: the shapes a character is written with (BabelStone IDS), not necessarily parts that carry meaning or sound.

不得不 in our stories

Preview version — Chinese review in progress.

  • 铁证面前，赵大不得不认罪。

    tiězhèng miànqián Zhào Dà bùdébù rènzuì

    Faced with ironclad evidence, Zhao Da had no choice but to confess.

    From the story The tale of the black basin HSK 7–9 · Level 7

  • 第一次尝试，他因为暴风雪在七千米的营地等了五天，最后不得不撤下山。

    dì-yī cì chángshì tā yīnwèi bàofēngxuě zài qīqiān mǐ de yíngdì děng le wǔ tiān zuìhòu bùdébù chè xià shān

    On his first attempt a blizzard kept him at the seven-thousand-metre camp for five days, and in the end he had to retreat down the mountain.

    From the story Two hundred metres from the summit HSK 7–9 · Level 9

Stories using 不得不

Dictionary data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0). Stroke data: Hanzi Writer data, derived from Make Me a Hanzi (Arphic Public License). Animation: Hanzi Writer (MIT licence). Radicals and stroke counts: Unicode Unihan (Unicode License v3).