除非
chú​fēi HSK5

unless

除非 chú​fēi
unless conjunction
1. Used to indicate a sole exception to prevent a negative outcome, often paired with 否则 fǒu​zé or 不然 bù​rán to mean "unless... otherwise..."; 2. Used to introduce an exception to a statement made in the main clause, often appearing in the second half of a sentence.

你永远不会知道你想要什么，除非你尝试新事物。

nǐ yǒng​yuǎn bù​huì zhī​dao nǐ xiǎng​yào shén​me, chú​fēi nǐ cháng​shì xīn shì​wù.

You will never know what you want unless you try new things.

我不去，除非雨停了。

wǒ bù qù, chú​fēi yǔ tíng le.

I will not go, unless the rain stops.

only if conjunction
Used to indicate a unique necessary condition, often paired with 才 cái to mean "only if... then..."

除非你去请，他是不会来的。

chú​fēi nǐ qù qǐng, tā shì bù​huì lái de.

He will not come unless you invite him.

except
(literary) Used like 除了 chú​le to mean "except for" or "other than", indicating that someone or something is the sole exception.

Frequency
Movie subtitles
128.2 per million appears in 44% of films
Written text
17.8 per million

Details
HSK 2.0
Level 5
HSK 3.0
Level 5

Cross-References

See

Same as

Sources
Frequency data
SUBTLEX-CHBCC Corpus (BLCU)