不三不四

Chinese

		not; no	three	not; no	four
simp. and trad. (不三不四)		不	三	不	四

Pronunciation

• Mandarin

  (Pinyin): bùsānbùsì

  (Zhuyin): ㄅㄨˋ ㄙㄢ ㄅㄨˋ ㄙˋ

• Cantonese (Jyutping): bat¹ saam¹ bat¹ sei³
• Southern Min (Hokkien, POJ): put-sam-put-sù

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• Mandarin
  • (Standard Chinese)⁺
    • Hanyu Pinyin: bùsānbùsì [Phonetic: bùsānbúsì]
    • Zhuyin: ㄅㄨˋ ㄙㄢ ㄅㄨˋ ㄙˋ
    • Tongyong Pinyin: bùsanbùsìh
    • Wade–Giles: pu⁴-san¹-pu⁴-ssŭ⁴
    • Yale: bù-sān-bù-sz̀
    • Gwoyeu Romatzyh: busanbusyh
    • Palladius: бусаньбусы (busanʹbusy)
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /pu⁵¹ sän⁵⁵ pu⁵¹⁻³⁵ sz̩⁵¹/
• Cantonese
  • (Standard Cantonese, Guangzhou–Hong Kong)⁺
    • Jyutping: bat¹ saam¹ bat¹ sei³
    • Yale: bāt sāam bāt sei
    • Cantonese Pinyin: bat⁷ saam¹ bat⁷ sei³
    • Guangdong Romanization: bed¹ sam¹ bed¹ séi³
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /pɐt̚⁵ saːm⁵⁵ pɐt̚⁵ sei̯³³/
• Southern Min
  • (Hokkien: Xiamen, General Taiwanese)
    • Pe̍h-ōe-jī: put-sam-put-sù
    • Tâi-lô: put-sam-put-sù
    • Phofsit Daibuun: putsamputsux
    • IPA (Xiamen): /put̚³²⁻⁴ sam⁴⁴⁻²² put̚³²⁻⁴ su²¹/
    • IPA (Kaohsiung): /put̚³²⁻⁴ sam⁴⁴⁻³³ put̚³²⁻⁴ su²¹/
    • IPA (Taipei): /put̚³²⁻⁴ sam⁴⁴⁻³³ put̚³²⁻⁴ su¹¹/

Adjective

不三不四

1. dubious; questionable; shady

   不三不四的人  ―  bùsānbùsì de rén  ―  dubious person

2. neither this nor that; neither fish nor fowl; nondescript

   說些不三不四的話 [MSC, trad.]
   说些不三不四的话 [MSC, simp.]

   shuō xiē bùsānbùsì de huà [Pinyin]

   to make remarks that are neither this nor that

See also

• 不倫不類／不伦不类 (bùlúnbùlèi)
• 四不像 (sìbùxiàng)
• 非驢非馬／非驴非马 (fēilǘfēimǎ)
• (Cantonese, Teochew) 唔三唔四
• (Hakka) 不褡不膝, 阿里不答
• (Hokkien) 不三似兩／不三似两, 毋成三兩／毋成三两, 不八不七, 不答不七, 阿里不達, 不顛不戒／不颠不戒