从...到...不等
Reach for this when you're describing a range of values that vary — prices from cheap to expensive, ages from young to old, durations from short to long. The 不等 tag at the end literally means 'not equal,' and it signals 'these aren't a fixed number — they spread across this range.' Common in news, product listings, surveys, and anywhere you need to say 'it depends, but here are the extremes.'
Structure
从 [LOW] 到 [HIGH] 不等
cóng... dào... bùděng
How to Think About It
Plain 从...到... ('from X to Y') just connects two points. Adding 不等 reframes them as the floor and ceiling of a distribution, not a journey from one to the other. So '从五块到十块' could mean a trip price between two stops, but '从五块到十块不等' means 'prices vary anywhere from 5 to 10 kuai.' The 不等 is the spread signal.
Examples
门票价格从一百到五百块不等。
Ménpiào jiàgé cóng yìbǎi dào wǔbǎi kuài bùděng.
Ticket prices range from 100 to 500 kuai.
参加的人年龄从十岁到六十岁不等。
Cānjiā de rén niánlíng cóng shí suì dào liùshí suì bùděng.
Participants' ages range from 10 to 60.
课程长度从一周到三个月不等。
Kèchéng chángdù cóng yì zhōu dào sān gè yuè bùděng.
Course lengths range from one week to three months.
Common Mistake
Learners drop 不等 and end up sounding like they're describing a single span instead of a varied range. Without 不等, '门票从五百到几千美元' reads as a continuous scale; native ears expect the 不等 to confirm 'different tickets fall at different points.'
票价从五百到几千美元。
票价从五百到几千美元不等。
Don't Confuse With
从...到...
Just a range without the 'varies' meaning. Use 从...到... for a span you cover ('I read from page 1 to page 10') and 从...到...不等 when items in a set fall at different points across that span.
在...之间
Says 'between X and Y' more statically. '价格在五十到一百之间' means prices sit somewhere in that band. 从...到...不等 adds the implication that different items hit different values.
大约...左右
Marks an approximation around one point ('around 100'), not a range. Use 左右 for a single fuzzy number, 从...到...不等 when you actually have a spread.
Practice
工资 ___ 五千 到 两万 不等。
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从
房租从两千到八千 ___ 。
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不等
Put in order: [不等 / 价格 / 从 / 到 / 一百 / 一千]
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价格从一百到一千不等。
Translate to Chinese: 'The hotel prices range from 300 to 2000 kuai.'
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酒店价格从三百到两千块不等。
Write one sentence describing a varied range using 从...到...不等.
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Example answer: 学生的水平从初级到高级不等。 (Students' levels range from beginner to advanced.)
Hear It in Real Episodes
This pattern appears in 1 Fluentide episode: