不觉 (bù jué) — without one's knowing; unconsciously; in spite…

Definition

不觉 (bù jué) means 'unconsciously / without realizing' — marks an action that happens before the subject notices. Common in narrative writing.

adverb

without one's knowingunconsciouslyin spite of oneself

不觉。
Tā bù jué liú xià le yǎn lèi.
He shed tears without realizing it.
不觉。
Wǒ men bù jué yǐ jīng zǒu le hěn yuǎn.
We had already walked quite far without noticing.
，不觉。
Tīng dào zhè ge xiāo xi, tā bù jué xiào le qǐ lái.
Upon hearing the news, she laughed in spite of herself.

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.

觉juéperceive

不 means not and 觉 means perceive, giving the sense of without noticing.

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.

Most characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.

This origin belongs to the traditional form 覺; 觉 is its simplified writing.

𦥯見覺

Meaning part形符xíngfú

見見jiànsee

Sound part声符shēngfú

𦥯

𦥯𦥯覺jué

The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

The traditional form 覺 pairs 見, a part that means see, with 𦥯, a part that gives the sound; simplified 觉 is a later abbreviation.

Appears in