Expressing "don't need to" with "buyong"

In Chinese, 要 (yào) has many meanings, one of which is "need to." However, when you want to express "don't need to," you actually use 不用 (bùyòng), not 不要 (bùyào).

Structure

Subj. + 不用 + [Verb Phrase]

Examples

• 不用 谢 。Bùyòng xiè.You don't need to thank me.
• 不用 担心 。Bùyòng dānxīn.You don't need to worry.
• 孩子 不用 买 票 。Háizi bùyòng mǎi piào.Kids don't need to buy tickets.
• 你 不用 过去 ，她 会 过来 的 。Nǐ bùyòng guòqù, tā huì guòlái de.You don't need to go over there. She will come here.
• 今天 不用 加班 。Jīntiān bùyòng jiābān.We don't need to work overtime today.
• 这 件 事 不用 跟 他 说 。Zhè jiàn shì bùyòng gēn tā shuō.You don't need to tell him about this.
• 告诉 他 明天 不用 来 了 。Gàosu tā míngtiān bùyòng lái le.Tell him that he doesn't need to come tomorrow.
• 买 吧 ，不用 考虑 价钱 。Mǎi ba, bùyòng kǎolǜ jiàqián.Buy it. You don't need to consider the price.
• 今天 人 少，不用 排队 。Jīntiān rén shǎo, bùyòng páiduì.There aren't many people today. We don't need to wait in line.
• 你们 不用 都 来 ，我们 不 需要 这么 多 人 。Nǐmen bùyòng dōu lái, wǒmen bù xūyào zhème duō rén.Not all of you need to come. We don't need this many people.

Colloquial Saying

In spoken Chinese, the rhetorical question, "这还用说吗？" indicates the speaker believes that the statement is obvious. It is equivalent to the speaker saying, "does that even need to be said?" or "is that seriously a question?" This 用 is the direct opposite of the 不用 in this grammar point, but you don't hear it a lot.

See also

• Negative commands with "bie"
• Auxiliary verb "yao" and its multiple meanings
• Negative commands with "bu yao"

Sources and further reading

Books

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