---
title: "何必 (hébì) in Chinese Grammar: Why bother, With Examples"
description: "何必 (hébì): why bother; there’s no need to. 何必 is a rhetorical \"why must…?\" meaning it isn’t necessary. 4 real lines from stories, each word explained."
canonical: "https://mandarinthewild.com/chinese-grammar/hebi"
author: "Mandarin The Wild"
---

[Chinese grammar](https://mandarinthewild.com/chinese-grammar)

# 何必 hébì

Why bother; there’s no need to

水仙shuǐxiānnarcissus

何必 is a rhetorical "why must…?" meaning it isn’t necessary.

## In stories

张飞不高兴了：“天这么冷，连仗都不打了，**何必**为了一个没用的人跑那么远？”

Zhang Fei was not happy: "It's so cold even the fighting has stopped; why trek all that way for a man who's no use to anyone?"

[三顾茅庐 · Three Visits to the Thatched Cottage](https://mandarinthewild.com/library/read/three-visits-to-the-thatched-cottage-three-kingdoms-intermediate-chinese-8#library-word-251-253) HSK 5

正说着，两个鬼王前来献上一件赭黄袍，道：“大王神通广大，**何必**替人做马夫？

As they were talking, two demon kings came to present him with a russet-yellow robe, saying: "Your Majesty's powers are boundless, so why be anyone's groom?

[齐天大圣 · Great Sage Equal to Heaven](https://mandarinthewild.com/library/read/great-sage-equal-to-heaven-journey-to-the-west-advanced-chinese-6#library-word-433-435)

曹操道：“得功者赏，**何必**计较贵贱？”

Cao Cao said, "The one who earns the merit gets the reward; why worry about rank?"

[温酒斩华雄 · Slaying Hua Xiong Before the Wine Cools](https://mandarinthewild.com/library/read/slaying-hua-xiong-three-kingdoms-advanced-chinese-2#library-word-910-912)

张飞道：“天寒地冻，连仗都不打了，**何必**去见这无用之人！”

Zhang Fei said, "It's so cold even the armies have stopped fighting; why trek out to see some good-for-nothing?"

[三顾茅庐 · Three Visits to the Thatched Cottage](https://mandarinthewild.com/library/read/three-visits-to-the-thatched-cottage-three-kingdoms-advanced-chinese-8#library-word-218-220)

## Your turn

Write your own sentence with 何必. It's checked, and you'll see if the pattern is there.

[Read 三顾茅庐](https://mandarinthewild.com/library/read/three-visits-to-the-thatched-cottage-three-kingdoms-intermediate-chinese-8#library-word-251-253)

## More patterns

- [把 + object + verb do something to … (and it ends up changed)](https://mandarinthewild.com/chinese-grammar/ba)
- [verb + 得 + complement says how something is done (how well, how much, with what result)](https://mandarinthewild.com/chinese-grammar/v-de-c)
- […的时候 when …](https://mandarinthewild.com/chinese-grammar/de-shihou)
- [verb (+ 了) + duration (for how long) for … (how long … lasts)](https://mandarinthewild.com/chinese-grammar/duration)
- [verb1 + 着 + verb2 (doing 2 while/by doing 1) do something while …; do it by …](https://mandarinthewild.com/chinese-grammar/v-zhe-v)
- [verb + 了 + verb … briefly; … a little](https://mandarinthewild.com/chinese-grammar/v-le-v)

## Now read them in a real story

[**十两饺子**How to order dumplings in ChineseHSK 1 · 1 minRead it free](https://mandarinthewild.com/library/read/how-to-order-dumplings-in-chinese)

## What does 何必 (hébì) mean in Chinese?

Why bother; there’s no need to. 何必 is a rhetorical "why must…?" meaning it isn’t necessary.

## How common is 何必?

It comes up in 4 readings of the 462 stories and articles in our free Library.

## Does it correct my mistakes?

The finder doesn’t: it shows which patterns a text uses and what each one does. To have a sentence you wrote corrected, with each mistake explained, use the Chinese grammar checker.

## More free tools

- [Chinese grammar checker](https://mandarinthewild.com/chinese-grammar-checker): your mistakes fixed
- [Chinese dictionary](https://mandarinthewild.com/chinese-dictionary)
- [Measure words](https://mandarinthewild.com/measure-words)
- [How hard is this text?](https://mandarinthewild.com/text-level)
- [Free Chinese stories](https://mandarinthewild.com/library)

Patterns found by our own parser; lines from our free Library.