HSK 5

无奈 (wú nài) — how to say "helpless" in Chinese

无奈

Helpless

verb · conjunction

Character composition

无

without

奈

what to do

Radicals / Keys

大

Big

#37 · dà · 3 strokes

无

Not

#71 · wú · 4 strokes

Collocations

感到无奈

gǎn dào wú nài

feel helpless

无奈地笑

wú nài de xiào

smile helplessly

Examples

看着小猫被困在树上却下不来,我们都很着急,但又感到无奈,不知道该怎么帮助它。

Seeing the kitten stuck in a tree and unable to come down, we were all very anxious but felt helpless, not knowing how to help it.

我感到很无奈。

I feel very helpless.

Writing

Frequently asked questions

Helpless meaning in Chinese

"helpless" in Chinese is 无奈 (wú nài).

无奈 meaning in English

无奈 (wú nài) means "Helpless".

How is 无奈 pronounced?

It is pronounced wú nài (written as wu nai, wunai). You can listen to the pronunciation on this page.

How do you write "helpless" in Chinese characters?

It is written 无奈: 无 has 4 strokes, 奈 has 8 strokes. The Writing section above animates the stroke order of each character and lets you trace it.

What HSK level is 无奈?

无奈 belongs to the HSK 5 vocabulary list.

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