不上

Chinese

		not; no	up; on; on top up; on; on top; upon; first; previous or last; upper; higher; above; previous; to climb; to go into; to go up
simp. and trad. (不上)		不	上

Pronunciation

• Mandarin

  (Pinyin): bùshàng

  (Zhuyin): ㄅㄨˋ ㄕㄤˋ

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• Mandarin
  • (Standard Chinese)⁺
    • Hanyu Pinyin: bùshàng [Phonetic: búshàng]
    • Zhuyin: ㄅㄨˋ ㄕㄤˋ
    • Tongyong Pinyin: bùshàng
    • Wade–Giles: pu⁴-shang⁴
    • Yale: bù-shàng
    • Gwoyeu Romatzyh: bushanq
    • Palladius: бушан (bušan)
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /pu⁵¹⁻³⁵ ʂɑŋ⁵¹/

Verb

不上

1. to not go up; to not ascend
2. (verbal complement) unable to

   趕不上／赶不上  ―  gǎn bùshàng  ―  unable to catch up with

   比不上  ―  bǐ bùshàng  ―  incomparable

Usage notes

When placed behind a verb, 不上 has a meaning of "unable to achieve" + verb. The opposite to 不上 would be 得上 ("able to" + verb).

Derived terms

• 比不上 (bǐbùshàng)
• 談不上／谈不上 (tánbúshàng)
• 趕不上／赶不上 (gǎnbùshàng)