Language/Mandarin-chinese/Grammar/Negation-Use-不-(bù)-or-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 by rote.
So how do you know when to use 不(bù) and 没(mei) in Chinese?
In this Chinese grammar lesson, I clearly explain to you how to express negation in Chinese using examples in French.
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
So 是 which 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.
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 :
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
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
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 :
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:
Have you ever been to China.
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
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
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
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
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
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
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:
I was not home yesterday