Do '不很 + adj' and '很不 + adj' have the same meaning?

Question

I have two sentences. Does 不 preceding or following 很 affect the sentence meaning?

她不很聪明，但很努力。
她很不聪明，但很努力。

Answer 1

很不 reinforces the (negated) adjective. 不很 indicates that the subject is "not really" as the adjectives says.

• 很不聪明 - very unintelligent.
• 不很聪明 - not too intelligent, not really intelligent.

Answer 2

The degree of "不聪明" changes according to the order of words; the object being qualified changes.

她不很聪明 ->
她(不(很聪明)) ->
She is not very smart. ->
She might be just ordinary.

她很不聪明 ->
她(很(不聪明)) ->
She is not smart greatly. ->
She might be quite clumsy.

Answer 3

I want to add another thing is that: we rarely say 不很 in Chinese. Usually, we say 不是很.

她不是很聪明，但很努力。 -> She is not very smart but she works hard.