Language/Mandarin-chinese/Grammar/Negation-Use-不-(bù)-or-没-(mei)

Negation in Chinese - How to choose between 不 (bù) and 没 (mei)

It's always a bit of a hassle to express negation in Chinese.

Because there are 2 possible translations which are 不(bù) and 没(méi) but you never really know which one to use or why.

And in grammar books it is often not clear with 15 different situations + 12 exceptions to remember.

So how do you know when to use 不(bù) and 没(mei) in Chinese?

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In this Chinese grammar lesson, I clearly explain to you how to express negation in Chinese using examples in English.

I give you in particular 2 simple rules to quickly decide between 不(bù) and 没(méi) when you converse in Chinese.

Negation in Chinese with 不

Let's start with 不. 

So, already what I advise you to do, is that each time you see the word 不, it is to always imagine that there is a 是 after the 不.

是 is the verb "to be" in Chinese. 

So basically now every time you hear the word "不", imagine that there is a "是" right after it.

不是

no

Who therefore means "not to be"

So the first little rule to know is that when you want to negate a sentence with the verb to be, you will always use "不".

For example:

你是美国人吗？

不是

我是法国人

Are you American?

no

I am French

So you saw thanks to this rule, there is already a big bunch of sentences, or you are 100% sure not to make a mistake, basically all the sentences with a verb to be.

But beware there is a small trap here to note. You know that in Chinese, there is not always a verb in the sentence. It is especially when you use adjectives

For example if you want to say "I am tall" in French we use the verb to be + the adj grand but in Chinese we do not use a verb to translate this sentence, we would translate by

我很高

I am tall

Suddenly you would be tempted to say, ha, but no, the rule does not work. In fact it's a trap, stay in French in your head, we would translate this sentence with the verb to be, suddenly here we apply the rule anyway and if you want to negate this sentence, you will also use 不. 我不高

I am not tall

Negation in Chinese with 没

Then for the word 没 and the same, I advise you now to, if you see the word 没, to always imagine that there is a 有 after a 没

So 有 which is the verb to have in Chinese and in Chinese not to have is written "没有"

For example :

法国有熊猫吗？

没有

法国没有熊猫

Are there pandas in France?

no

There are no pandas in France

And the same, all the sentences with the Chinese verb to have, so 有, you will always do the negation with the word 没.

So to summarize the first rule that is quite simple to know is that when a sentence has the verb to be, so 是 in Chinese, you always use 不 to negate.

Beware of the trap of sentences without verb with an adjective in Chinese but that would still translate by a verb to be in French that also counts

And when a sentence has the verb to have, therefore 有, you always use the word 没 to negate.

How to choose between 不 and 没

Where it gets a bit complicated all of a sudden, is how do you do the negation when a sentence has neither the verb to be, nor the verb to have?

So here what we are going to do is that we are going to look at the time of the sentence. More precisely, we will answer the question "Would this sentence be translated in the past tense in French?"

If the answer is yes, then we use 没 and if the answer is no then it is 不.

Here is some example to better understand, imagine someone asking you in Chinese:

你去过中国吗

have you been to China

And you want to say no, I've never been to China

So how do we know if we are using 没 or 不.

So you ask yourself the question, is my sentence in the past tense here? a priori yes, it's past tense so by following the rule we deduce we use 没:

我没去过中国

I have never been to China

I'll give you another example but this time in the future, imagine this time the person asks you, are you going to go to China: 你要去中国吗？

Are you going to China?

And you want to answer that no, you are not going to go to China.

So to know which negative word used, you ask yourself the question is the sentence you are answering in the past tense and here the answer is no, so you are going to use 不:

我不要去中国

I don't want to go to China

So in summary, the rule is very simple. This is basically asking the question:

"Will I express myself in the past tense in French or not?" "

Especially since you don't need to translate your sentence entirely into French to know. Just try to work on this little reflex of asking yourself if you are in the past tense or not to quickly make your choice between 不 and 没

Exception to the rule

Well now that you know these 2 rules, as you can imagine there are always exceptions to the rule

So, you see the goal when you learn a language is to understand what you hear and to be able to quickly make yourself understood orally.

You don't have to be 100% perfect, Don't try to strive for perfection, know all the exceptions to a rule, or master all the grammar. If you are correct 90% of the time, it is already a great score and you will be understood very well in Chinese.

However it is true that the 2 little rules that I just gave you do not work 100% of the time so I will still give you 3 exceptions which are useful to know because they are very common verbs in Chinese.

The first is 知道 which means to know in Chinese, I think that all the students know this verb because to say I don't know we say:

我不知道.

I have no idea.

So this verb, we always use 不 whether in the past, present or future.

For example if you mean, I didn't know he was coming, so a sentence in the past tense. If you follow my rule, you should use 没. Except that in practice with this verb we always use 不:

我不知道他要来

I don't know he is coming

Another verb is 认识 which in French translates to know, in the sense to know someone. The same, we always use 不 whatever the tense in which we express ourselves.

So for example if you mean, I didn't know him before. So from the past in French. Well in Chinese we will translate by:

我以前不认识他

I didn't know him before

And last exception very useful to know, it is the verb 在 which in French translates as, finally one of the possible translations is "to be present, to be there" It is particularly useful for translating sentences like "Yesterday I was not home "

So a sentence in the past tense in French, except that the same, with the verb 在 we always use 不. And suddenly we will instead translate this sentence by:

我昨天不在家

I was not home yesterday

Sources

• https://chinoistips.com/comment-utiliser-%E4%B8%8Dbu-et-%E6%B2%A1mei-la-negation-en-chinois/