How to Say I Don't Understand in Chinese

Chinese

我听不懂

我聽不懂

Pinyin

wǒ tīng bù dǒng

Sounds like

waw ting boo dong

Read it piece by piece

我

wǒ

waw

English IPA /wɔː/

听

tīng

ting

English IPA /ting/

不

bù

boo

English IPA /buː/

懂

dǒng

dong

English IPA /dong/

When to use 我听不懂

Neutral

Say 我听不懂 when spoken Mandarin is too fast or unfamiliar.
Follow it with 请说慢一点 to ask the speaker to slow down.

Other ways to say it

我不明白

wǒ bù míng bai

I do not understand the idea

Neutral

我看不懂

wǒ kàn bù dǒng

I cannot understand what I am reading

Neutral

Example conversations

I don't understand. Please say it again.

我听不懂，请再说一遍。

我聽不懂，請再說一遍。

wǒ tīng bù dǒng, qǐng zài shuō yí biàn

Sorry, I don't understand Chinese.

不好意思，我听不懂中文。

不好意思，我聽不懂中文。

bù hǎo yì si, wǒ tīng bù dǒng zhōng wén

Common mistakes

听不懂 describes failure to understand by listening; it is more specific than a general 我不知道, which means 'I don't know.'

How to say I don't understand in Chinese

When to use 我听不懂

Other ways to say it

Example conversations

Common mistakes

Related Chinese phrases