Welcome to ChineseFrequencyDictionary.com. Enter a Chinese character or compound Chinese word to lookup. If a valid dictionary entry is found, frequency information will be shown below:

Chinese Character/Word:

Definition(s) for: 不然

Hanzi Pinyin Definition(s)
不然 bù rán - not so
- no
- or else
- otherwise
- if not
- How about ...?

List Ranking:

Where rank 1 is most common, and higher numbers are less common.

HSK 2 Level (2012) HSK 3 Band (2022) SUBTLEX-CH BeijingUni Global BeijingUni Weibo
5 4 1,109 3,463 1,572

Individual Character Breakdown:

Simp Pinyin Eng
- no; not so
- (bound form) not; un-
rán- correct
- right
- so
- thus
- like this
- -ly

Other Words Containing 不然

Sorted by the 'SUBTLEX-CH' rank because that seems like the most reliable. Words without a SUBTLEX-CH rank are ignored for being too rare.

Word HSK 2 Level (2012) HSK 3 Band (2022) SUBTLEX-CH BeijingUni Global BeijingUni Weibo
不然 5 4 1,109 3,463 1,572
要不然 6 6 4,448 11,288 7,355