English–Chinese
“not have time to” in Chinese
Chinese
Pronunciation
Pinyinlái bù jí
Example
我来不及吃早饭了。wǒ lái bù jí chī zǎo fàn le
I don't have time to eat breakfast now.
How to say “not have time to” in Chinese
“Not have time to” in Chinese is 来不及 (lái bù jí).
The time for an action runs out before the action can happen.
Example sentences with 来不及
他收到消息时已经太晚，来不及道歉。tā shōu dào xiāo xī shí yǐ jīng tài wǎn lái bù jí dào qiàn
By the time he received the message, it was already too late for him to apologize.
Tips for using 来不及
- English often describes the speaker's lack of time, while Chinese frames the action as unable to reach its time, so the word commonly comes before another verb.