Weird usage of 不

Question

In this sentence the 不 in the last few phrases seems to mean the opposite. For example 放不下 seems to mean the same as 放下 in this context. Is the Bu just decorative or is there a special structure here?

一次次反复。哭累了，沉默了。想放弃了，冷淡了。可是时间一过，却又还是想念了。放不下，忘不掉，戒不了，走不开。

Answer 1

The structure of Verb + Result Complement is used to describe the result of an action.

Eg: 做完 看见 买到 说清楚 放下 抬高 忘掉 走开 走进去 打开 关上 ect.

There are two ways to negate this structure:

1. put negatives(不/没/别/不要/没有 etc.) before verbs, like 没做完 没忘掉 没看见 没买到 别放下 不要打开 没有走进去. This form of negation means that the action is NOT done(没有走进去/不走进去), or is asked to NOT be done(别放下), or is done but the result is not expected (没做完).

   Note: 不走进去 sounds incompleted, so we don't use it alone. But we can put it in a full sentence, like 这个房间，你 不走进去 就不知道它有多大。

2. put negative 不 between Verb and Complement, like 做不完 看不见 买不到 抬不高 打不开 关不上. This form of negation means that the subject performed this action, but was NOT ABLE to achieve the expected result.

Answer 2

In this case, Bu (不) means cannot.

So that 放不下 means "cannot" and 放下，忘不掉 means "cannot forget".

Answer 3

gcd0318 is correct.

不+verb+adv. = don't want to do
verb+不+adv. = not able to do (lack the ability of doning)



不走进去 = don't want to go into
走不进去 = not able to go into (probably want to go into, but failed to go)

Answer 4

it means not only negetive, but also disability, or impossible. say, some one mentioned 不走进去, which is totally different from 走不进去 不走进去 means you are not willing to get into, or you are lack of the motivation 走不进去 means you want to get into, even you tried, but you failed to get into