不知好歹

Mandarin · pinyin bù zhī hǎo dǎi

Meanings

  1. unable to differentiate good from bad (idiom)
  2. not to know what's good for one
  3. unable to recognize others' good intentions
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Characters in this entry

不
bù · no, not; un-; negative prefix
知
zhī · know, perceive, comprehend
好
hǎo · good, excellent, fine; well
歹
dǎi · bad, vicious, depraved, wicked
Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Mandarin tones

4–1–3–3 · bu4 zhi1 hao3 dai3

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

bat1 zi1 hou2 daai2

Pleco · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Word reading; meanings not aligned.

Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

Independent source senses for this spelling, with usage labels retained. Not matched to the pronunciation above.

phrase

  1. (idiomatic) cannot tell good from bad; to mistake good for bad; to be unable to see others' good intentions

Source page · dump 2026-09-02 · Contributors & history

Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0 · source & license · Data pack

不知好歹 · bu4 zhi1 hao3 dai3
CC-CEDICT contributors and MDBG · edition 2026-10-13 · source line 2,734
Original dictionary · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source & transformation details
Exact source record不知好歹 不知好歹 [bu4 zhi1 hao3 dai3] /unable to differentiate good from bad (idiom)/not to know what's good for one/unable to recognize others' good intentions/