8
votes
What is the usage of 蔑 as a negation word in classical chinese?
Here's a good English definition and explanation with an example sentence to get you started:
A Students Dictionary of Classical and Medieval Chinese
2 negative particle of the perfective: had not, ...
Mou某♦
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8
votes
What does it mean to end a sentence in 没?
"你找到你爸爸了没"
It's short for "你找到你爸爸了没有?" or "你找到你爸爸了还是没有找到?". The complete sentence should be "do you find your father, or not?". "没" here is similar as "or not" in English.
BTW. The "你" before "爸爸" ...
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7
votes
What is the origin of 没 as an alternative to 不?
This is a knottier question than it first appears. The answer is hard to summarise, but it seems to be related to the special status of 有 and 無 from the beginning of Chinese.
In the Old Chinese of ...
- 5,658
7
votes
Accepted
Why is 也 used for negation in 你也配?
也 means even
你也配? (even you are worthy?) is a rhetorical question, it is in fact, a statement for "你不配" (you are not worthy)
(the standard hasn't sunk so low that even people like you are ...
- 69.8k
6
votes
How to exclude an ingredient when ordering food?
Any of these sentences would be grammatically correct. However
我要一份青椒肚片不要(加)大蒜
would be a better and more common usage in my opinion.
It would be even better to include the character in the ...
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6
votes
Accepted
What does it mean to end a sentence in 没?
Yes, adding the 没 at the end makes it a question. In this case, it is equivalent to "你找到你爸爸了吗？"
Without the 没, it would be "You found your dad". With the 没 makes it "Have you found your dad?".
It's ...
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5
votes
Accepted
Why does 他没看书 use 没 and not 不 in this dialogue?
The opposite of "他没看书" (he did not/has not read books) is "他有看书" (he did/ has read books)- 没(has not) here replaces the adverb 有(has)- to indicate 'absent' of the action
The ...
- 69.8k
4
votes
How does 十分/不十分 work？
Good question.
不满 is a single word. It means unhappy or unsatisfied. It cannot be separated into 不 + 十分 + 满. It's like you can't say "un-very-happy".
不满意 is a phrase, 不 + 满意 = not satisfied. It can ...
- 1,268
4
votes
How to exclude an ingredient when ordering food?
if you are speaking Cantonese, you can use
我要一份青椒肚片‘走’蒜。
in English it's something like take it off.
- 369
4
votes
How can I negate time and when to place 在 before time?
I am a bit confused by the 在 in your example sentence, since you don't need it there, 我不在8点起床，我(在?)9点起床。 Frankly, I wouldn't know what this sentence was supposed to mean, if you hadn't provided a ...
- 7,118
3
votes
Why is 也 used for negation in 你也配?
a. 你不配。
b. 你也配？
c. 你也配！
All of the above express the same meaning: you are not qualified (for something or to do something). Of course sentence a. is the most straightforward option. I'd say ...
- 5,455
3
votes
Why two 不 in 不得不, when only one "not" in its English translations?
On the English side, please note that:
Negation is implied in the preposition "but":
have no choice or option but to,
cannot but,
can't help it (but)
Negation is implied in the verb avoid:...
2
votes
When do we use 没(mei3) and 不(bu4) before verbs in sentences?
没 and 不 are fundamentally different.
没 means "didn't"
不 means "won't" or "don't"
Actually your two sentences are perfectly normal Chinese sentences:
我没喝 means I didn't drink (it) -or- I haven't ...
Mou某♦
- 34.4k
2
votes
How does 十分/不十分 work？
他十分不满
He is very unsatisfied.
他不十分满
He is not very ...full?
The problem is the usage of 满.
不满=unsatisfied
满意=satisfied
But only 满 usually means full/completed/filled
so 他不十分满 is wrong, how could a man ...
- 402
2
votes
How does 十分/不十分 work？
According to my book New practical Chinese HSK5 what I understood.
十分不满 or 十分不满意=fully not satisfied
Not satisfied at all
In the other hand
不十分满意=not fully satisfied
2
votes
Accepted
Where to put 不 when responding in negative
As far as I can tell, the question does not require you to leave the 能 in the sentence. Since the 能 is already implied by the 可能补语 structure, the most natural way to solve your problem would be to ...
- 1,847
2
votes
Why does 他没看书 use 没 and not 不 in this dialogue?
That is really a good question. For English, it could use "not" in both two situations.
In my own opinion, you should get contextual analysis. A is asking David's activity, so the correct answer is 他没（...
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2
votes
What is the origin of 没 as an alternative to 不?
Our moderator @songyuanyao has already provided a good link, here I make some additions:
没 is the opposite of 有, which implys the objective absence, while 不 is mere negation.
Is 不有 valid?
Yes! But ...
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2
votes
What does it mean to end a sentence in 没?
This is typical Southern Chinese. 没 means 没有, and at the end of a sentence, short for 还是没有.
你找到你爸爸了没？
= 你找到了你爸爸还是没有？
= Have you found your dad, or not?
In Northern Chinese, it should be:
...
- 1,797
2
votes
What does it mean to end a sentence in 没?
I think it's actually 了没 that works together, instead of the single character 没. 了没 can be interpreted as Have ... yet?. It works in the structure "verb + 了没". For example, 你吃了没(Have you eat yet?)，...
- 23.7k
2
votes
Accepted
Nouns where the negative demands a different verb
我對明星一點興趣都不感
Your problem is not that verb itself, but the word order.
The correct order is: 我對明星一點 都不感興趣.
Hope this could help you.
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2
votes
How do you ask "Will you see your child next Sunday" in Chinese using verb not verb structure?
the second has two verb. 會見and 不見(or maybe the sentence just ignore the conjunction.this is not formal)。
Here is correct grammar
你下个星期天见不见你的孩子
just take 会 away and the sentence will be perfect and ...
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2
votes
Accepted
How does this 不像 work?
Tl;dr: because of the inferential nature of the construction 不像⋯⋯有, the phrase that expresses the idea of unlikeness is essential to understanding.
A syntactically loyal (but less idiomatic in ...
- 5,455
2
votes
How does this 不像 work?
門口不像日本有隔出玄關範圍的高低差
Some object is omitted
(這)[門口] [不像日本(的門口)(那樣)] [有] [隔出玄關範圍的][高低差]
(This)[door], [unlike Japan('s doors) (which)] [have] [that separate the entrance area ][height difference]
This ...
- 69.8k
2
votes
Why is 也 used for negation in 你也配?
The dialogue would make better understanding if a question mark is included, as, 你也配？, which actually questions someone's "qualification or worthiness" rather than affirming it.
Saying, 你也配？ ...
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2
votes
Why is 也 used for negation in 你也配?
In here, 也 means "too", or "also".
For example - 那些人都是英雄. (你算老幾,) 你也配!? "All those people are heroes. Who the hell you are that thinking of yourself qualifies as one too!?&...
- 6,420
2
votes
Accepted
Why two 不 in 不得不, when only one "not" in its English translations?
"have to" contains no negator particles! All other translations have merely 1 negator, either "no" or "not"! Thus why does Chinese have 2 negators in 不得不?
"不得不"...
- 69.8k
2
votes
Accepted
Confusion over 得，唔得 + verb
買 = buy
買[得] = [can] buy (allowed to buy)
[唔]買[得] = [can't] buy (not allowed to buy)
[冇得]買 = [not available] to buy
冇買得 is ungrammatical
食 = eat
食[得] = [can] eat (allowed to eat)
[唔]食[得] = [can't] ...
- 69.8k
1
vote
Accepted
How do you ask "Will you see your child next Sunday" in Chinese using verb not verb structure?
I feel the main issue is covered in a Yoyo Chinese YouTube video (starting around 1:20); they use the two-verb example:
你会说中文。
你会不会说中文?
The Yoyo Chinese video describes this as "focusing on the ...
- 13.3k
1
vote
What is the origin of 没 as an alternative to 不?
没 denotes the sense of non-existence, while 不 is a general negation. The other way to think of it is that 没 is the short version of 没有. In other words, you can replace 没 with 没有 when 没 precedes a verb....
- 23.7k
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