HSK 7–9 grammar · pattern
巴不得
巴不得 — can't wait to, would love nothing more
Pattern
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( ) can be left out · other words may come before, between and after
How it works
巴不得 expresses an eager wish the speaker would seize at once if they could. It differs from 恨不得, which describes an impossible urge — 巴不得 wants something that really could happen.
Examples
我巴不得明天就放假。
Wǒ bābude míngtiān jiù fàngjià.
I can't wait for the holiday to start tomorrow.
他巴不得你去帮他。
Tā bābude nǐ qù bāng tā.
He'd be only too glad for you to help him.
See it in a story
In the app, 巴不得 is underlined wherever it appears in the stories you read, and practised with sentences from them. Free.