要
不

Otherwise in Chinese: 要不 (yào bù)

yào bù

otherwise

HSK 3.0 Levels 7-92 example sentences

Definitions

  1. 1otherwise
  2. 2or else
  3. 3how about...?
  4. 4either... (or...)

Stroke order

Watch how to write 要不 stroke by stroke.

要
不

Zhuyin

This word’s pronunciation in Bopomofo.

Learn how to read Zhuyin

ㄧㄠˋ

yào

ㄧ/ iㄠ/ aoˋ/ fourth tone

ㄅㄨˋ

bù

ㄅ/ bㄨ/ uˋ/ fourth tone

Example sentences

See 要不 used in real sentences with pinyin and English translations.

  • 他要不行了。

    tā yào bù xíng le。

    He's on his last legs.

  • 要不要上高架走？

    yào bu yào shàng gāo jià zǒu？

    Do you want to take the highway?

Spotted a mistake?

Related words

不

bù

no

要

yào

to want

需要

xū yào

to need

要求

yāo qiú

to request

重要

zhòng yào

important

主要

zhǔ yào

main

不但

bù dàn

not only (... but also ...)

不管

bù guǎn

not to be concerned

不过

bù guò

only

不仅

bù jǐn

not just

只要

zhǐ yào

if only

必要

bì yào

necessary

Appears in

HSK 3.0 Levels 7-9 vocabulary listHSK 5 vocabulary list

Learn 要不 with spaced repetition

Add 要不 (yào bù) to your review queue and the FSRS algorithm will schedule it exactly when you're about to forget — then meet it again in a short AI-generated story written at your level.

Start learning free

No credit card required · Free tier included