要不

Chinese

		important; vital; to want important; vital; to want; to be going to; must; demand; ask; request; coerce	not; no
trad. (要不)		要	不
simp. #(要不)		要	不
anagram		不要

Pronunciation

• Mandarin

  (Pinyin): yàobù

  (Zhuyin): ㄧㄠˋ ㄅㄨˋ

• Cantonese (Jyutping): jiu³ bat¹

---

• Mandarin
  • (Standard Chinese)⁺
    • Hanyu Pinyin: yàobù → yàobu (toneless final syllable variant)
    • Zhuyin: ㄧㄠˋ ㄅㄨˋ → ㄧㄠˋ ˙ㄅㄨ (toneless final syllable variant)
    • Tongyong Pinyin: yàobů
    • Wade–Giles: yao⁴-pu⁵
    • Yale: yàu-bu
    • Gwoyeu Romatzyh: yawbu
    • Palladius: яобу (jaobu)
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /jɑʊ̯⁵¹⁻⁵³ pu⁵¹/ → /jɑʊ̯⁵¹ b̥u¹/
• Cantonese
  • (Standard Cantonese, Guangzhou–Hong Kong)⁺
    • Jyutping: jiu³ bat¹
    • Yale: yiu bāt
    • Cantonese Pinyin: jiu³ bat⁷
    • Guangdong Romanization: yiu³ bed¹
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /jiːu̯³³ pɐt̚⁵/

Conjunction

要不

1. otherwise; or else; or
2. either ... or ...; or
3. (colloquial) how about (you and I, we); shall (you and I, we); let's

   要不我，我還是先回去吧。 [MSC, trad.]
   要不我，我还是先回去吧。 [MSC, simp.]

   Yàobù wǒ, wǒ háishì xiān huíqù ba. [Pinyin]

   I think it's best I leave.

Synonyms

• (or else):

• 不然 (bùrán)
• 冇是 (Pinghua)
• 再不 (zàibù) (colloquial)
• 再不然 (zàibùrán)
• 勿然 (⁸veq-zoe) (Wu)
• 否則／否则 (fǒuzé)
• 唔係／唔系 (m⁴ hai⁶) (Cantonese)
• 唔係嘅話／唔系嘅话 (Cantonese)
• 如咪 (Hong Kong Cantonese)
• 若唔係／若唔系 (Teochew)
• 若無／若无 (Min Nan)
• 要不然 (yàobùrán)

 

• (either... or...):

• 一係／一系
• 或是 (huòshì)
• 要麼／要么 (yàome)