HSK 5 grammar · pattern
不得了
不得了 — extremely / oh no!
Pattern
+ +
said on its own
( ) can be left out · other words may come before, between and after
How it works
After 得, 不得了 marks an extreme degree — "extremely / terribly so." Standing alone as an exclamation, 不得了 means "oh no! / this is terrible," reacting to an alarming situation.
Examples
今天热得不得了，一动就出汗。
Jīntiān rè de bùdéliǎo, yí dòng jiù chūhàn.
It's terribly hot today; you sweat the moment you move.
不得了了，孩子不见了！
Bùdéliǎo le, háizi bú jiàn le!
Oh no — the child is missing!
Related
See it in a story
In the app, 不得了 is underlined wherever it appears in the stories you read, and practised with sentences from them. Free.