不知

bùzhī

adverb HSK 7 #1,588

Meanings

1 not know; unaware
2 I wonder (used rhetorically)

Characters

Examples

不知你方便吗？

Bùzhī nǐ fāngbiàn ma?

I wonder if it's convenient for you?

不知不觉，天已经黑了。

Bùzhī-bùjué, tiān yǐjīng hēi le.

Before I knew it, it was already dark.

不知何时才能再见。

Bùzhī hé shí cái néng zàijiàn.

I don't know when we'll meet again.

Tips

register

不知 is more literary and polite than 不知道. Using 不知 at the start of a question softens it — 不知您是否有空？(I wonder if you're free?) sounds much more polite than 你有空吗？. The expression 不知不觉 (bùzhī-bùjué, 'without knowing, without feeling') meaning 'unknowingly/before you realize it' is extremely common.

Stroke Order

不 bù

知 zhī