来不及
Not enough time (to); too late to
来不及 + verb: there is no longer time to do it (再不走就来不及了 “if we don’t leave now it’ll be too late”).
In stories
曹操想追，已经来不及了。
Cao Cao wanted to give chase, but it was too late.
等曹操得知，这边船身轻，水流急，已经驶出二十多里，追也来不及了。
By the time Cao Cao heard, the boats were light and the current was fast, and they were already more than twenty li away, too far to catch.
关羽骑上赤兔马，提刀冲进敌阵，如入无人之境，颜良还来不及开口，便被他一刀斩于马下。
Guan Yu mounted Red Hare, took up his blade and charged into the enemy lines as if no one were there; before Yan Liang could even speak, one stroke cut him down from his horse.
Your turn
Write your own sentence with 来不及. It's checked, and you'll see if the pattern is there.
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What does 来不及 (láibují) mean in Chinese?
Not enough time (to); too late to. 来不及 + verb: there is no longer time to do it (再不走就来不及了 “if we don’t leave now it’ll be too late”).
How common is 来不及?
It comes up in 3 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.
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Patterns found by our own parser; lines from our free Library.