免得 Introduces 192 Negative Purposes
Answering: “how to say lest in Chinese”
Updated 2026-09-26 · plain text · JSON
免得 introduces the outcome an action is meant to prevent. It is the negative counterpart of a purpose clause.
- HSK level
- 6
- derived from its own words
- In the Bible
- 192
- clauses
- Meet it first in
- Deuteronomy
- where it is commonest
- How sure
- Counted
- 100% of a checked sample
Practise it
Tap the words that carry the pattern.
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The same verses, in full
Easiest first: ranked by how much of each verse sits at or below HSK 6, the point’s own level. Colours are tones. Nothing here was written for the page — every line is in the text.
他们tā men要yào用yòng手shǒu托tuō着zhe你nǐ， 免得miǎn de你nǐ的de脚jiǎo碰pèng在zài石头shí tou上shàng。」
and, ‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest perhaps you dash your foot against a stone.’”
Luke 4:11 · 100% of this verse’s words are at or below the point’s own HSK level
他们tā men要yào用yòng手shǒu托tuō着zhe你nǐ， 免得miǎn de你nǐ的de脚jiǎo碰pèng在zài石头shí tou上shàng。
They will bear you up in their hands, so that you won’t dash your foot against a stone.
Psalms 91:12 · 100% of this verse’s words are at or below the point’s own HSK level
他们tā men说shuō：「来lái吧ba！我们wǒ men要yào建造jiàn zào一yí座zuò城chéng和hé一yí座zuò塔tǎ，塔tǎ顶dǐng通tōng天tiān，为wèi要yào传扬chuán yáng我们wǒ men的de名míng，免得miǎn de我们wǒ men分散fēn sàn在zài全quán地上dì shang。」
They said, “Come, let’s build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top reaches to the sky, and let’s make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad on the surface of the whole earth.”
Genesis 11:4 · 97% of this verse’s words are at or below the point’s own HSK level
若ruò有人yǒu rén饥饿jī è，可以kě yǐ在家zài jiā里lǐ先xiān吃chī，免得miǎn de你们nǐ men聚会jù huì，自己zì jǐ取qǔ罪zuì。其余qí yú的de事shì，我wǒ来lái的de时候shí hou再zài安排ān pái。
But if anyone is hungry, let him eat at home, lest your coming together be for judgment. The rest I will set in order whenever I come.
1 Corinthians 11:34 · 96% of this verse’s words are at or below the point’s own HSK level
他tā必bì使shǐ父亲fù qīn的de心xīn转向zhuǎn xiàng儿女ér nǚ，儿女ér nǚ的de心xīn转向zhuǎn xiàng父亲fù qīn，免得miǎn de我wǒ来lái咒诅zhòu zǔ遍地biàn dì。」
He will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the earth with a curse.”
Malachi 4:6 · 94% of this verse’s words are at or below the point’s own HSK level
免得miǎn de你们nǐ men玷污diàn wū那nà地dì的de时候shí hou，地dì就jiù把bǎ你们nǐ men吐tǔ出chū，像xiàng吐tǔ出chū在zài你们nǐ men以yǐ先xiān的de国民guó mín一样yí yàng。
that the land not vomit you out also, when you defile it, as it vomited out the nation that was before you.
Leviticus 18:28 · 91% of this verse’s words are at or below the point’s own HSK level
Go and meet it in the text
- Read Luke 4 — where the first example above comes from, with every word tappable.
- The rest of HSK 6 grammar — the other points at this level, with their counts.
- The HSK 6 word deck — the vocabulary side, ordered by how often the Bible uses it.
What the Bible does with it
免得 is the negative purpose clause in one word: 免得你们死, lest you die; 免得遭这样的伤损, to avoid this harm. It sits at the head of the clause it negates, and nothing else in that clause needs a negation — the word carries it.
The Chinese Union Version (和合本, simplified) uses 免得 194 times. 2 of those occurrences are the same words doing something else.
It is an unusually clean pattern to learn from this text, because the material keeps producing reasons not to do things. Leviticus and Deuteronomy account for a large share of it.
It is commonest in Deuteronomy, with 18 of them, and 69% of all of them fall in the Old Testament — which is mostly a statement about length, since the Old Testament is the longer part of the book.
| Word | Reading | HSK | Occurrences |
|---|---|---|---|
| 免得 | miǎn de | 6 | 194 |
The HSK column is the level data/dict.json gives the word, and it is what puts this point at level 6.
| Occurrences | Share | |
|---|---|---|
| the construction | 192 | 99% |
| the same words doing something else | 2 | 1% |
| Book | Clauses |
|---|---|
| Deuteronomy | 18 |
| Leviticus | 16 |
| Numbers | 14 |
| 1 Corinthians | 12 |
| Genesis | 11 |
Counted from what the rule matched, before the audit — a ranking, not a published total.
Counted
The rule: 免得 with another word after it in the same clause — the outcome being avoided.
30 of 192 matches were drawn at random and read in context; 100% were right. Checked by Claude Opus 5, reading each sampled clause in context; not a native speaker. Recall is not measured: this is what the rule finds, not everything the translation contains.
This point is HSK 6 because that is the highest HSK level of the point's own function words, as data/dict.json grades them; a word the HSK lists do not grade sends the point to 'beyond'.
Questions
- How is it different from 为了?
- 为了 introduces a purpose to be achieved and does not occur in this translation at all. 免得 introduces one to be avoided, and occurs constantly.
- How often does it occur in the Chinese Bible?
- 192 clauses in the Chinese Union Version (和合本, simplified), out of 194 occurrences of the words that mark it.
- Which book of the Bible uses it most?
- Deuteronomy, with 18 — followed by Leviticus (16), Numbers (14), 1 Corinthians (12).
- How do you know the count is right?
- The rule is: 免得 with another word after it in the same clause — the outcome being avoided. 30 of its 192 matches were drawn at random and checked one by one; 100% were right. Recall is not measured, so the figure is what this rule finds, not everything the translation contains.
Related reference pages
Take it further
- 97 ready-made vocabulary decks — by HSK level, by book or by topic, exportable to Anki, Pleco or Quizlet.
- Printable 田字格 worksheets — passages with pinyin, meanings and tracing rows.
- The parallel reader — Chinese, pinyin and your own language side by side, every word tappable.
- The dataset behind these numbers — plain JSON, free to reuse with attribution.
How this was measured
Edition: Chinese Union Version (和合本, simplified). Every figure comes from one pass over all 1,189 chapters and 31,021 verses, 650,628word tokens in total, using the site’s own segmentation. A construction count is published only when a hand-checked sample of the rule that found it was at least 90% correct; between 70% and that it is published as an approximation, and below it no count is published at all. Generated 2026-09-26.