← ChinesePath Chinese Dictionary

无奈

wúnài

  1. verb to be helpless; to have no way out

    面对这种局面,他也无奈。

    Miànduì zhè zhǒng júmiàn, tā yě wúnài.

    Faced with such a situation, even he was helpless.

  2. adjective helpless and resigned

    她无奈地叹了口气,接受了现实。

    Tā wúnài de tàn le kǒu qì, jiēshòu le xiànshí.

    She sighed helplessly and accepted the reality.

  3. correlative conjunction but unfortunately; only that (formal, in the second clause)

    我本想去看你,无奈临时有事。

    Wǒ běn xiǎng qù kàn nǐ, wúnài línshí yǒu shì.

    I had meant to come and see you, but unfortunately something came up.

The full ChinesePath dictionary entry for 无奈 includes audio for every reading and example sentence, more example sentences, collocations, synonyms and links to the course units where it is taught.

Look It Up in the App