不好意思

Character by character

• 不bù4 strokesHSK 1no, not; un-; negative prefix
• 好hǎo6 strokesHSK 1good, excellent, fine; well
• 意yì13 strokesHSK 2thought, idea, opinion; think
• 思sī9 strokesHSK 2think, consider, ponder; final particle

Each character links to its stroke order page with a tracing and a writing exercise.

Example sentences

• 不好意思！

  B h oy si

  Excuse me!

  Listen

Example sentences from Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR), contributed by their community.

Words with the same characters

These words share at least one character with 不好意思. Reading them together is how the character starts to stick — the same characters in a different context.

• 不bùHSK 1

  no; not so; (bound form) not; un-

• 好hǎoHSK 1

  good; appropriate; proper; all right!; (before a verb) easy to; (before a verb) good to; (before an adjective for exclamatory effect) so; (verb complement indicating completion); (of two people) close; on intimate terms; (after a personal pronoun) hello

• 不过bù guòHSK 2

  only; merely; no more than; but; however; anyway (to get back to a previous topic); cannot be more (after adjectival)

• 不要bù yàoHSK 2

  don't!; must not

• 不错bù cuòHSK 2

  correct; right; not bad; pretty good

• 不同bù tóngHSK 2

  different; distinct; not the same; not alike

• 注意zhù yìHSK 3

  to take note of; to pay attention to

• 好像hǎo xiàngHSK 2

  as if; to seem like

• 愿意yuàn yìHSK 2

  to wish; to want; ready; willing (to do sth)

• 好好hǎo hǎoHSK 3

  well; carefully; nicely; properly

• 意义yì yìHSK 3

  sense; meaning; significance; importance

• 不管bù guǎnHSK 4

  not to be concerned; regardless of; no matter

• 不再bù zàiHSK 6

  no more; no longer

• 同意tóng yìHSK 3

  to agree; to consent; to approve

• 意思yì siHSK 2

  idea; opinion; meaning; wish; desire; interest; fun; token of appreciation, affection etc; to give as a small token; to do sth as a gesture of goodwill etc

• 意见yì jiànHSK 2

  idea; opinion; suggestion; objection; complaint

• 不用bù yòngHSK 1

  need not

• 不少bù shǎoHSK 2

  many; a lot; not few

• 不断bù duànHSK 3

  unceasing; uninterrupted; continuous; constant

• 意识yì shíHSK 5

  consciousness; awareness; to be aware; to realize

• 不够bù gòuHSK 2

  not enough; insufficient; inadequate

• 不行bù xíngHSK 2

  won't do; be out of the question; be no good; not work; not be capable

• 不仅bù jǐnHSK 3

  not just; not limited to; (as a correlative conjunction) not only (..., but also ...)

• 不知bù zhīHSK 7

  not to know; unaware; unknowingly; fig. not to admit (defeat, hardships, tiredness etc)