巴不得

Mandarin

simpl. and trad.
巴不得

Etymology

巴 (“to wait”) +‎ 不得 (“unable to”).

Pronunciation

Mandarin (Standard Chinese, Beijing) Pinyin bābùdé  →  bābudé (toneless variant) Zhuyin ㄅㄚ ㄅㄨˋ ㄉㄜˊ  →  ㄅㄚ ㄅㄨ˙ ㄉㄜˊ (toneless variant) IPA (key) /pa̠⁵⁵ pu⁵¹ tɤ³⁵/  →  /pa̠⁵⁵ b̥u² tɤ³⁵/

Verb

巴不得 (traditional and simplified, Pinyin bābude)

1. (colloquial) to be only too anxious (to do something); to eagerly look forward to

   我巴不得你快回家！

   I can't wait for you to finally return home!

References

• "巴不得" (in Mandarin), nciku.com. URL accessed on 2009-06-18.