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How can I negate an adjective in the past?

For example: 这是红色的。It is red. 这不是红色的。It's not red.

How could I say 'It was not red'? I read somewhere that 没有 only negates action verbs. If that's true, would the sentence in the past be the same (apart from time expressions) as the present?

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  • past time might be indicated by 曾、曾经 or other adverb like 以前：曾经（以前）不是红色的，Does "it was not red" imply "now it is red"?
    – user6065
    Commented Jul 22, 2017 at 20:07

2 Answers 2

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How do you specify past tense for 是?

From my answer:

You have to remember, unlike in English, we do not have past tense for verbs in Chinese grammar. Both "is" and "was" is written as "是" in Chinese.

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You can say "它以前不是红色的". But it can imply somehow "它现在是红色的"。

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