TongTong
Sign in

不料 (bù liào) — (conjunction) unexpectedly; to one's surprise

Definition

A formal conjunction meaning 'unexpectedly' that connects two clauses to show the second contradicts what the first led you to expect. Unlike the adverb 竟然/居然 (which modify a verb inside one clause), 不料 links whole clauses together.

conjunction
unexpectedlyto one's surprise

Examples

  • ，不料。
    Tā jīn tiān běn lái yào lái de, bù liào lín shí yǒu shì.
    He was supposed to come today, but unexpectedly something came up.
  • ，不料。
    Wǒ men yǐ wéi kǎo shì hěn jiǎn dān, bù liào tí mù fēi cháng nán.
    We thought the exam would be easy, but to our surprise the questions were very hard.
  • ，不料。
    Tā dǎ suàn cí zhí, bù liào lǎo bǎn xiān bǎ tā kāi chú le.
    She planned to resign, but unexpectedly the boss fired her first.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
偏正piānzhèngModifier + head

The first part narrows down the second: it says what kind of thing the head is.

不bùnot
料liàoexpect

不 says not, and 料 means to expect, so it says something was unexpected.

Characters in this word

A drawing of the thing itself, worn down over three thousand years into a few strokes.

The picture in 不 originally showed a flower’s calyx; the “no” sense came later from a related character, not from this picture.

Open 不 →

Two or more meaningful parts placed together so that their meanings combine into a new one.

料 combines 米 (rice) with 斗 (a dipper), showing rice being measured or gauged.

Open 料 →
Appears in
HSK 3.0 Level 6HSK 2.0 Level 6

Browse more HSK 6 words or search the full 43,000-word dictionary.