Expressing "don't need to" with "buyong"

In Chinese, 要 (yào) has many meanings, one of which is "need to." However, when you want to express "don't need to", you actually use 不用 (bùyòng), not 不要 (bùyào).

Structure

Examples

不用谢。 Bùyòng xiè. You don't need to thank me.
不用担心。 Bùyòng dānxīn. You don't need to worry.
孩子不用买票。 Háizi bùyòng mǎi piào. Kids don't need to buy tickets.
你不用过去，她会过来的。 Nǐ bùyòng guòqù, tā huì guòlái de. You don't need to go over there. She will come here.
今天不用加班。 Jīntiān bùyòng jiābān. We don't need to work overtime today.
这件事不用跟他说。 Zhè jiàn shì bùyòng gēn tā shuō. You don't need to tell him about this.
告诉他明天不用来了。 Gàosu tā míngtiān bùyòng lái le. Tell him that he doesn't need to come tomorrow.
买吧，不用考虑价钱。 Mǎi ba, bùyòng kǎolǜ jiàqian. Buy it. You don't need to worry about its price.
今天人少，不用排队。 Jīntiān rén shǎo, bùyòng páiduì. There aren't many people today. We don't need to wait in line.
你们不用都来，我们不需要这么多人。 Nǐmen bùyòng dōu lái, wǒmen bù xūyào zhème duō rén. Not all of you need to come. We don't need that many people.

Colloquial Saying

In spoken Chinese, the rhetorical question, "这还用说(吗)?", indicates the speaker believes that the statement is obvious. It is equivalent to the speaker saying, "is that seriously a question?" or "do you really need to ask?" Often, "这还用说(吗)?" is said in an impatient tone of voice.

Expressing "don't need to" with "buyong"

Contents

Structure

Examples

Colloquial Saying

See also

Sources and further reading

Books