Learn how to say "not" and "don't have"
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| Hēi , dàjiā hǎo , wǒ jiào Mǎ Yànrú .Hi everybody! I’m YanruMa. |
| Welcome to ChineseClass101.com’s “Sān fēnzhōng Hànyǔ”. The fastest, easiest, and most fun way to learn Chinese. |
| In our previous lessons, we learned how to use the verb yǒu and shì. In this lesson, we’re going to learn how to turn them into their negative forms in order to say "I don't have." and “I am not”. |
| So let's take an example. Imagine you are about to go to a party with a Chinese friend. You ask him if he has a car to use to go to the party, and he says Wǒ méi yǒu qìchē. |
| Let’s look at this negative sentence: |
| Wǒ méi yǒu qìchē. |
| slowly Wǒ méi yǒu qìchē. |
| Could you figure out which word means something like “don’t” in that sentence? |
| Right! There was one little word, méi. This is a special word used to make a verb negative in Chinese. |
| So let's have a look at the way to switch from affirmative to negative. |
| First without the word méi. If your friend does have a car, he would have said Wǒ yǒu qìchē. Instead, he said Wǒ méi yǒu qìchē. That méi there means something like “don’t” |
| So basically, you just have to put the word méi before the verb “yǒu” if you want to make it negative. |
| So now, how would you say "I am not a student?" For reference, “I am a student.” is “wǒ shì xuésheng ,”So you might want to add méi before the verb shì. But no! That’s not right. Here the negation word should be bù, and the sentence should be Wǒ bù shì xuésheng |
| Ok, I’m sure you must be very confused now...Don’t worry, I will tell you how to tell the difference between these two words. Although they can both make verbs negative, literally, méi is “not have’’, and bù means ‘’not’’. So let’s see the sample sentences again. |
| Wǒ méi yǒu qìchē., literally, this means “I not have a car.” Wǒ bù shì xuésheng is ‘I not am a student’. |
| It’s a little difficult, but first you should be clear about what situation you are in, and what kind of questions you have been asked, then you will know which negation word you should choose. |
| Now it’s time for Yanru’s tips. |
| In the last lesson, we learned how to say “Do you have a car” in Chinese? Do you still remember it? Yes,there are two ways. Nǐ yǒu qìchē ma? and Nǐ yǒu méiyǒu qìchē? So do you know how to say “Are you a student?” in Chinese? Yes, there are two ways to do this too. One is Nǐ shì xuésheng ma? and the other is Nǐ shì bù shì xuésheng? And the rule is the same. The former is a little formal, and be careful when you use the latter. |
| Get ready for the next lesson, because we are going to learn how to really spice up your Chinese with descriptive words and phrases. Do you know how to say “delicious?” |
| I’ll be waiting for you with the answer in the next Sān fēnzhōng Hànyǔ. |
| Zài jiàn ! |
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