不料 / 没想到: unexpectedly
连词 / conjunctions
Tone colorsā tone 1á tone 2ǎ tone 3à tone 4a neutral
不料 (written, "unexpectedly") and 没想到 (spoken, "I didn't expect") introduce a twist in a narrative: "but, to everyone's surprise", "who'd have thought".
不料 opens the second clause. The event is often negative, though not always. Literary variants: 谁知、哪知.
Examples
本来计划周末去爬山，不料下了一场大雨。
Běnlái jìhuà zhōumò qù pá shān, búliào xià le yì cháng dà yǔ.We'd planned to go hiking at the weekend, but unexpectedly it poured.
皇帝以为自己很安全，不料大臣早就背叛了他。
Huángdì yǐwéi zìjǐ hěn ānquán, búliào dàchén zǎo jiù bèipàn le tā.The emperor thought he was safe, but his minister had long since betrayed him.
没想到这么小的村子，竟然出了三个状元。
Méi xiǎngdào zhème xiǎo de cūnzi, jìngrán chū le sān ge zhuàngyuan.Who'd have thought such a small village would produce three top imperial scholars?
Common mistakes
✗ 不料 for something planned: ✗ 我计划去北京，不料去了北京 → there must be a gap with expectations.
✗ Reading 不料 as *bù liào*: ✓ *búliào* (料 is 4th tone).