不得不 bùdébù▶ ต้อง

Stroke order

不得不 is written in 19 strokes across 3 characters.

• 不 — 4 strokes
• 得 — 11 strokes
• 不 — 4 strokes

Senses

1. have no choice or option but to
2. cannot but
3. have to
4. can't help it
5. can't avoid

Example sentences

• 下雨了，我们不得不回家。Xià yǔ le, wǒmen bùdébù huí jiā.It rained, so we had to go home.
• 他不得不重新做一次。Tā bùdébù chóngxīn zuò yí cì.He had to do it over again.

Related words

• 不仅ไม่เพียงแต่
• 不管ไม่ว่า
• 不过อย่างไรก็ตาม
• 值得มูลค่า, คุ้มค่า
• 得意ภูมิใจ, หยิ่ง
• 获得ได้รับ, ได้มา

不得不 is pronounced bùdébù and means “ต้อง”. It belongs to the HSK 4 vocabulary, one of the six bands of the Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi, China’s official Chinese proficiency exam. Recognising 不得不 on a page and producing it in conversation are different skills, and only the second holds up when someone is waiting for an answer — so LexiTrail brings it back just as your memory of it starts to fade, not on a fixed weekly rota.