Unexpected in Chinese
unexpected · HSK 5
意外
- 意 idea
- 外 outside
Counted with 个: 一个意外
听到这个消息，大家都很意外。 Everyone was surprised to hear the news.
Other ways to say unexpected
More words with 意 or 外
How do you say unexpected in Chinese?
Unexpected in Chinese is 意外 (yì wài). You can also say 突然 (tū rán), 横 (hèng).
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.
More free tools
Greetings: hello, good morning and goodbye. Measure words: the classifier for any noun. Tone practice: say a word and see your tones. Read any Mandarin: point at a word for its meaning.
Meanings from our own dictionary. Chinese often has more than one way to say a word.