Comments on: A Bit about Bù 不

By: Helen

Helen — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 04:17:24 +0000

There two opposite parlances but they express the same meaning.
难免犯错误nánmiǎn fàncuòwù = 难免不犯错误nánmiǎn búfàncuòwù = hard to avoid mistakes

By: Helen

Helen — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 15:35:57 +0000

No matter他不会告诉~ or 他会不告诉~, both make sense anyhow, although you can hardly hear the native speaker say the latter.

Now, pay attention to these traps,

Bùyīdìng shì nǐrènwéide nàyàng 不一定是你认为的那样 The situation might be not as you think.
1.<
yídìng búshì nǐrènwéide nàyàng 一定不是你认为的那样 Certainly not as you think.

tā bùgǎn jiǎng 他不敢讲 He did not dare to say.
2.<
tā gǎn bùjiǎng 他敢不讲 he have to say, even though he is unwilling to.

wǒ bùxiǎng tā zhīdào 我不想他知道 I do not want him to know.
3.<
wǒxiǎng tā bùzhīdào 我想他不知道 I suppose he did not know.

nǐ bùxiǎng qùma 你不想去吗 You don’t want to go, do you?
4.<
nǐxiǎng búqùma 你想不去吗 Don’t you want to stay?

Zhèbúshì wǒxiǎng shuōde 这不是我想说的 This is not what I mean.
5.<
zhèshìwǒ bùxiǎngshuōde 这是我不想说的 I do not hope to say this.

wǒ búquèdìng shìtā 我不确定是他 I’m not sure it’s him.
6.<
wǒqǔ̀dìng búshì tā 我确定不是他 I’m sure it’s no him.

nǐ bùnéng gàosu tā ma 你不能告诉他吗 Can’t you tell him by yourself ?
7.<
你能不告诉他吗

tā bùyīnggāI zhīdào zhèjiànshì 他不应该知道这件事 He need not be aware of this matter.
8.<
tāyīnggāI bùzhīdào zhèjiànshì 他应该不知道这件事 He probably did not know this matter.

bùhǎoyìsi 不好意思 I’m sorry.
9.<
hǎoyìsību 好意思不 shame on you, him, etc.

7. 你能不告诉他吗
1. nǐ néng búgàosu tāma (imperative) Don’t tell him, will you?

2. nǐ néngbúgàosu tāma (a rhetorical question) There is no way to avoid to tell

By: syz

syz — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 14:56:06 +0000

Albert — very cool stuff and you indeed deliver on your promises even if it does take a VERY long time B^)

I was kinda dubious about Randy’s assertion, particularly wrt the following, which he was claiming could be grammatical.

(*WRONG*) nǐ yīnggāi bú gàosu tā 你应该不告诉她 [you should not tell her]

Certainly the more common way would be “…bu yinggai gaosu…”

But could the other way work? Per his suggestion, I searched Baidu for “应该不”. Many of the examples don’t apply, being just a snippet of 应该不应该. But some seem to be pretty close, e.g.

“短期内应该不会征收资本利得税” from a news article.

I glossed this as “In the short term it’s probably the case that it’s unlikely to levy a capital gains tax.”

Then I glossed what would happen if you flipped it around — 短期内不应该会征收资本利得税 — as “…shouldn’t levy a capital gains tax”

As I played around with it, I thought that the following might work as a rule:

you can make 应该不 work as long as 应该 has the meaning of “probably” but not for meaning “should”

But then there’s another page that addresses this specific bu-before-vs-after question specifically, saying: “你应该不来≠你不应该来”. After looking thru some of this, I’m convinced that Randy’s onto something.

For the record, here‘s the website, but watch out for weird porn malware/advertisements that work sort of like popup windows if you’re opening this on a work computer. [Obviously this is perfectly good ad targeting. Anyone who cares about the finer points of the Mandarin grammar of negation is sure to be having a hard time finding porn -- so why not put it right on the grammar site!]

By: Randy Alexander

Randy Alexander — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 03:34:17 +0000

* (*WRONG*) tā huì bú gàosu biérén 他会不告诉别人 [he will not tell other-person]

This is definitely wrong, but the other examples you gave as wrong are not necessarily wrong (and are attested in Baidu), but simply unusual, and point to alternate perspectives:

wǒ bú rènwéi shì zhè yàng 我不认为是这样 “I don’t think it’s like this.”
wǒ rènwéi bú shì zhè yàng 我认为不是这样 “I think it’s not like this.”

Where you put “not” in English is important too, but there certainly is flexibility. And just like in English, there are certain verbs with negative forms, like “can’t”, so in English you can say “can not” but not “not can”, and in Chinese you can say “不会” but not “会不”.