Chinese Mandarin Lessons 15 through to 50

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Lesson 20

不 (bù) — Not [Negation]

Introduction

For autodidact students of Mandarin, the negation particle 不 (bù) — “not” — is one of the most fundamental words in the language. It negates verbs, adjectives, and modal verbs. However, it has a crucial restriction: it cannot negate 有 (yǒu, to have) or express past negation of completed actions — those functions belong to 没 (méi). Mastering when to use 不 versus 没 is one of the first major grammatical distinctions a Mandarin learner must make.