Involuntarily in Chinese
involuntarily · HSK 7–9
不由自主
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- 不 not
- 由 by
- 自 from
- 主 master
听到音乐，他不由自主地跳了起来。 Hearing the music, he started dancing involuntarily.
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Other ways to say involuntarily
More words with 不 or 由 or 自 or 主
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How do you say involuntarily in Chinese?
Involuntarily in Chinese is 不由自主 (bù yóu zì zhǔ). You can also say 身不由己 (shēn bù yóu jǐ).
Which word should I use?
Start with the first one: it is the easiest on the HSK list. The others say it too, often in a more formal way or for a narrower sense; each one’s page has real sentences that show how it is used.
Where do these words come from?
Our own dictionary’s meanings for the official HSK word list. A word is shown for an English word when that is one of its first meanings; the easiest word whose first meaning it is comes first.
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