可想而知

kěxiǎng'érzhī

idiom HSK 7 #27,147

Meanings

1 as you can imagine; it goes without saying
2 one can well imagine

Characters

to think; to imagine

Literally 'can imagine and then know' — something so obvious you can figure it out without being told.

Examples

他一个人做三个人的工作，压力之大可想而知。

Tā yí ge rén zuò sān ge rén de gōngzuò, yālì zhī dà kěxiǎng'érzhī.

He does the work of three people — you can imagine the pressure.

没有准备就上台演讲，结果可想而知。

Méiyǒu zhǔnbèi jiù shàngtái yǎnjiǎng, jiéguǒ kěxiǎng'érzhī.

Going on stage to give a speech without preparation — the result is easy to imagine.

Tips

grammar

可想而知 usually comes at the end of a sentence or clause, after presenting the situation. The pattern is: [situation], 可想而知. It's a neat rhetorical device — you state the cause and let the listener fill in the obvious conclusion.

Stroke Order

可 kě

想 xiǎng

而 ér

知 zhī