必 (bì): certainly, must, will

必 (bì) is a Chinese character meaning “certainly.” Classified as HSK Level 3 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 心 (structural) and 丿 (structural). It ranks #248 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. certainly
  2. must
  3. will

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5

Practice writing 必 with real-time feedback — trace each stroke in the correct order and build muscle memory in the HanziFeed app.

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 必

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
必须adverbbì xūto have to3
必要adjectivebì yàonecessary5
不必adverbbù bìneed not4
必需verbbì xūto need5
必然adjective/nounbì ráninevitable5
未必adverbwèi bìnot necessarily6
必修adjectivebì xiū(of an academic course) required6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
何必adverbhé bìthere is no need
必定adverbbì dìngto be bound to
务必verbwù bìmust
想必adverbxiǎng bìpresumably
必胜verbbì shèngto be certain of victory
必将adverbbì jiānginevitably
必需品nounbì xū pǐnnecessity
必备verbbì bèiessential
不必要adjectivebù bì yàoneedless
必经verbbì jīngunavoidable
必不可少phrasebì bù kě shǎoabsolutely necessary
势必adverbshì bìto be bound to
分秒必争phrasefēn miǎo bì zhēngseize every minute and second (idiom)
必要性nounbì yào xìngnecessity
势在必行phraseshì zài bì xíngcircumstances require action (idiom)
81
Total compounds
35
As first character
9
As last character
57
As middle character

必 appears in 81 compound words: 35 as the first character, 9 as the last, and 57 in a middle position. Compound statistics computed from SUBTLEX-CH and HSK 3.0 vocabulary data.

Strongest Collocations

Characters that most frequently co-occur with 必 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

须xū
0.80673,209 co-occurrences
要yào
0.50558,696 co-occurrences
忽hū
0.4823,876 co-occurrences
技jì
0.45516,296 co-occurrences
需xū
0.42711,038 co-occurrences
遵zūn
0.4152,270 co-occurrences
然rán
0.38013,016 co-occurrences
烈liè
0.3793,966 co-occurrences
杀shā
0.3613,068 co-occurrences
不bù
0.35326,248 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (17)

哀兵必胜āibīngbìshèngHSK 7+

an army burning with indignation is bound to win

phrase
必不可少bìbùkěshàoHSK 3+

essential; indispensable

phrase
必恭必敬bìgōngbìjìngHSK 5+

reverent and respectful; extremely deferential

phrase
必要条件bìyào tiáojiànHSK 3+

necessary condition

noun
必由之路bìyóuzhīlùHSK 4+

the path that must be taken; the only way

phrase
大可不必dàkěbùbìHSK 3+

to be completely unnecessary

phrase
分秒必争fēnmiǎobìzhēngHSK 4+

to grasp every minute; to make full use of one's time

phrase
骄兵必败jiāobīngbìbàiHSK 6+

the conceited army which underestimates its opponent is bound to lose

phrase
骄者必败jiāo zhě bì bàiHSK 4+

pride goes before a fall (idiom)

phrase
事必躬亲shìbìgōngqīnHSK 7+

to take care of every single task personally

phrase
势在必行shìzàibìxíngHSK 5+

to be imperative or necessary under such circumstances

phrase
言多必失yánduōbìshīHSK 4+

the more one says, the easier it is to make a mistake

proverb

Showing 12 of 17 idioms containing 必.

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

做事之前必须做好充分的准备,这样才能提高成功率。

Zuòshì zhīqián bìxū zuò hǎo chōngfèn de zhǔnbèi, zhèyàng cáinéng tígāo chénggōng lǜ.

Before doing things, you must make full preparations; this is the only way to increase the success rate.

Vietnam+Feb 2026

范明政总理:春节假期后首个工作日必须迅速投入到工作中去

fàn míng zhèng zǒng lǐ : chūn jié jiǎ qī hòu shǒu gè gōng zuò rì bì xū xùn sù tóu rù dào gōng zuò zhōng qù

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh: The first working day after the Spring Festival holiday must be quickly put into work

EttodayFeb 2026

走到哪都看见她!施工外墙必备“神秘女郎” 真实用途超爆笑

zǒu dào nǎ dōu kàn jiàn tā ! shī gōng wài qiáng bì bèi shén mì nǚ láng zhēn shí yòng tú chāo bào xiào

I see her everywhere I go! The construction of exterior walls is a must-have "mystery girl" The real use is super hilarious

百度新闻Feb 2026

未必是坏事!南马降级成精英标 马拉松将回归体...

wèi bì shì huài shì ! nán mǎ jiàng jí chéng jīng yīng biāo mǎ lā sōng jiāng huí guī tǐ . . .

It's not necessarily a bad thing! South Malaysia was relegated to an elite standard, and the marathon will return to the body...

百度新闻Feb 2026

特朗普向伊朗下最后通牒:伊朗15天内必须与美国达成..

tè lǎng pǔ xiàng yī lǎng xià zuì hòu tōng 牒 : yī lǎng 1 5 tiān nèi bì xū yǔ měi guó dá chéng . .

Trump issued an ultimatum to Iran: Iran must reach an agreement with the United States within 15 days:

百度新闻Feb 2026

俄罗斯女婿给丈母娘磕头拜年:不是必须做,是我所能表..

é luó sī nǚ xù gěi zhàng mǔ niáng kē tóu bài nián bù shì bì xū zuò , shì wǒ suǒ néng biǎo . .

Russian son-in-law kowtowed to his mother-in-law for New Year's Eve: it's not mandatory, it's the best I can do...

Tatoeba

我有必要向他解释原因吗?

Wǒ yǒu bìyào xiàng tā jiěshì yuányīn ma?

Is it necessary for me to explain the reason to him?

Tatoeba

我必须吃这个药吗?

Wǒ bìxū chī zhège yào ma?

Must I take this medicine?

Tatoeba

为什么它是必要的?

Wèishénme tā shì bìyào de?

Why should it be necessary?

Tatoeba

你今天必须起得很早吗?

Nǐ jīntiān bìxū qǐ dehěn zǎo ma?

Did you have to get up very early this morning?

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced bì

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 必 (bì) mean in Chinese?
必 (bì) primarily means "certainly." It is classified as HSK Level 3, making it a beginner-level character. It ranks #248 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 必 have?
必 is written with 5 strokes. The correct stroke order matters for recognition and handwriting speed — practice with the animated guide above to build proper technique.
What is the radical of 必?
The radical associated with 必 is 忄 (heart). This radical appears in many characters related to heart.
What are the components of 必?
必 is composed of: 心 (structural), 丿 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿻心丿 with a overlay layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 必?
Common words with 必 include: 必须 (bì xū, "to have to"); 必要 (bì yào, "necessary"); 不必 (bù bì, "need not"); 必需 (bì xū, "to need"); 何必 (hé bì, "there is no need"). There are over 81 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 必 (bì)?
Several characters share the pronunciation bì: 比 (Belgium), 笔 (writing brush), 避 (to avoid), 毕 (the whole of), and 6 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 必 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 必 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 必 with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear spoken pronunciation, and build lasting retention with spaced repetition in the HanziFeed app.

Character data sourced from Unihan (Unicode Consortium), SUBTLEX-CH frequency corpus (Cai & Brysbaert, 2010), and Make Me a Hanzi (stroke data). Collocation strength measured via NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information). Verified by the HanziFeed linguistics team.

HSK classification follows the HSK 3.0 Standard (Center for Language Education and Cooperation, CLEC, 2022 revision). Idiom data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).

Data last verified: March 2026.