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不妙

búmiào

not good; troubling

A worried person looks at a dark cloud over a house
Memory picture

Characters in this word

不 bù

Strokes
4
Radical
一 — one
How it's built
Ideograph — the meaning is built from its parts

妙 miào

Strokes
7
Radical
女 — woman, girl
Made of
女 woman, girl 少 few, little
How it's built
Phono-semantic — one part hints at the meaning, another at the sound

Example phrases

  • 银行突然收紧贷款,公司的现金状况显得相当不妙。 Yínháng tūrán shōujǐn dàikuǎn, gōngsī de xiànjīn zhuàngkuàng xiǎnde xiāngdāng búmiào. The bank suddenly tightened lending, and the company's cash position looked quite troubling.
  • 天色突然变暗,看起来情况不妙。 Tiānsè tūrán biàn àn, kàn qǐlái qíngkuàng búmiào. The sky suddenly darkened, and things did not look good.
  • 他一听老师的语气就觉得不妙,肯定出事了。 Tā yì tīng lǎoshī de yǔqì jiù juéde búmiào, kěndìng chū shì le. As soon as he heard the teacher's tone, he sensed trouble; something must have happened.

Related words

All HSK 7 words →