Sentence pattern · Band 1
不: saying no to now and always
不 + 动词/形容词
不 is the no for right now, for habits and for opinions: I do not drink milk, this book is not good, I am not going to work today. It slips in after the person and before the action, a small head shake inside the sentence. Things that already happened belong to its cousin 没有; that word gets its own page.
Hear it in a sentence
Mistakes people make
The no stays inside the sentence, after the person and before the action; it never stands at the front like English not.
English builds is not going; Mandarin lets 不 do the whole job, so 是 stays home.
Words in this pattern
Quick answers
What does 不：否定 mean?
不 is the no for right now, for habits and for opinions: I do not drink milk, this book is not good, I am not going to work today. It slips in after the person and before the action, a small head shake inside the sentence. Things that already happened belong to its cousin 没有; that word gets its own page.
How do you build it?
不 + 动词/形容词
What is the most common mistake?
不我去。 → 我不去。
The no stays inside the sentence, after the person and before the action; it never stands at the front like English not.
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