愿意

愿意 (yuànyì) is the Chinese verb for 'to be willing' — used to express genuine consent or readiness to do something. It is a modal verb placed before the main verb: 我愿意帮你 ('I'm willing to help you'). The key distinction from English: 愿意 is about willingness from the heart, not capability (能 néng) or desire (想 xiǎng). 'I want to go' is 我想去; 'I can go' is 我能去; 'I'm willing to go' is 我愿意去 — the last implies you may not have wanted to, but you accept doing it.

It is also the standard word in weddings (你愿意吗？ — 'Do you take...?'). The negative 不愿意 ('unwilling') is strong — softer alternatives include 不太想 ('not really wanting to'). For polite refusals, native speakers rarely use 不愿意 because it sounds blunt; they say 不方便 ('inconvenient') or 算了吧 ('let's forget it').