得 dé
- Strokes
- 11
- Radical
- 彳 — to step with the left foot
- How it's built
- Ideograph — the meaning is built from its parts
得不偿失
débùchángshī
the loss outweighs the gain
Characters in this word
不 bù
- Strokes
- 4
- Radical
- 一 — one
- How it's built
- Ideograph — the meaning is built from its parts
偿 cháng
- Strokes
- 11
- Radical
- 亻 — man, person
- Made of
- 亻 man, person 尝 to taste
- How it's built
- Phono-semantic — one part hints at the meaning, another at the sound
失 shī
- Strokes
- 5
- Radical
- 大 — big, great, vast, high, deep
- How it's built
- Ideograph — the meaning is built from its parts
Example phrases
- 为了压低成本而牺牲安全标准，最终只会得不偿失。 Wèile yādī chéngběn ér xīshēng ānquán biāozhǔn, zuìzhōng zhǐ huì débùchángshī. Sacrificing safety standards in order to lower costs will ultimately be more trouble than it is worth.
- 为了省几块钱走很远的路，真是得不偿失。 Wèile shěng jǐ kuài qián zǒu hěn yuǎn de lù, zhēn shì débùchángshī. Walking a long way to save a few yuan is really not worth it.
- 熬夜工作换来一身病，得不偿失。 Áoyè gōngzuò huàn lái yì shēn bìng, débùchángshī. Working through the night and ending up ill is a bad trade.
Related words
- 得到 dédào to get, to obtain
- 记得 jìde to remember
- 觉得 juéde to think, to feel
- 得 dé to get; to receive
- 得出 déchū to reach a conclusion
- 得 de so; to the extent (after a verb)
- 懂得 dǒngde to understand; to know about
- 取得 qǔdé to achieve; to obtain
- 不得不 bùdébù to have to
- 得分 défēn to score points
- 认得 rènde to recognize
- 显得 xiǎnde to seem; to look