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Mythic Mandarin

不然 (bù rán): meaning and stroke order

不然 (bù rán) means not so, no, or else, otherwise, if not, How about ...?.

不然

Simplified
不然
Traditional
不然 (same form)
Pinyin
bù rán

Stroke order of 不然

不

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

Stroke by stroke

然

  • rán correct; right
  • 12 strokes

Stroke by stroke

Meaning of 不然

  1. bù rán
    • not so
    • no
    • or else
    • otherwise
    • if not
    • How about ...?

Radicals of the characters

不
Radical 一 (Kangxi radical 1) · 4 strokes · built from 丆 and 卜
然
Radical 火 (Kangxi radical 86) · 12 strokes

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.

不然 in our stories

Preview version — Chinese review in progress.

  • 这下可闯祸了。龙王找到李靖，要求他交出儿子，不然就要淹没整个陈塘关。

    zhè xià kě chuǎnghuò le Lóngwáng zhǎodào Lǐ Jìng yāoqiú tā jiāo chū érzi bùrán jiù yào yānmò zhěng gè Chéntángguān

    Now he had really caused a disaster. The Dragon King found Li Jing and demanded he hand over his son, or he would drown the whole of Chentang Pass.

    From the story Nezha stirs up the sea HSK 7–9 · Level 8

Stories using 不然

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).