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不得了

bùdéliǎo
adjective HSK 5 #7,098

Meanings

  1. 1 extremely
  2. 2 exceedingly
  3. 3 desperately serious

Characters

不
bù
not
得
dé
to get; to obtain
了
liǎo
to finish; able to
Literally 'cannot be finished/handled' - implies something is extreme or serious

Examples

HSK 2
他高兴得不得了。
Tā gāoxìng de bùdéliǎo.
He was extremely happy.
HSK 2
今天热得不得了。
Jīntiān rè de bùdéliǎo.
It's unbearably hot today.
HSK 4
不得了！房子着火了！
Bùdéliǎo! Fángzi zháohuǒ le!
This is terrible! The house is on fire!

Tips

grammar
Two main patterns: (1) adj + 得不得了 means 'extremely adj'; (2) standalone 不得了 as an exclamation means 'this is terrible/serious!'
mistakes
Don't confuse 不得了 (bù dé liǎo, extremely) with 了不得 (liǎo bu dé, amazing/extraordinary). They have different emphasis.

Stroke Order

不 bù
得 de
了 le