不得已 bùdéyǐ▶ no tener más alternativa que

Stroke order

不得已 is written in 18 strokes across 3 characters.

• 不 — 4 strokes
• 得 — 11 strokes
• 已 — 3 strokes

Senses

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

Related words

• 不免inevitable
• 不堪no soportar
• 不妨bien podría
• 不惜no escatimar; no dudar
• 不愧Digno
• 不料Inesperadamente

不得已 is pronounced bùdéyǐ and means “no tener más alternativa que”. You will meet it in HSK 6, a band of the Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi — the standard test of Chinese proficiency. Most learners can pick 不得已 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.