必要 bìyào▶ necesario

Stroke order

必要 is written in 14 strokes across 2 characters.

• 必 — 5 strokes
• 要 — 9 strokes

Senses

1. necessary
2. essential
3. indispensable
4. required

Related words

• 何必Por qué
• 必然Inevitable
• 未必no necesariamente
• 次要secundario
• 要不O
• 不要紧No importa

必要 is pronounced bìyào and means “necesario”. You will meet it in HSK 5, a band of the Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi — the standard test of Chinese proficiency. Most learners can pick 必要 out of a list long before they can reach for it unprompted, and the gap between those two closes only with repeated recall. LexiTrail schedules the next sighting from how well you did on the last.