Chinese Sentence Structure and Word Order VI

This grammar section is divided into a few sub-sections, and will be described through a few week activities:

SP1. Basic Pattern
SP2. Direct and Indirect Objects
SP3. Prepositional Phrases
SP4. Location and Time Phrases
SP5. Adverbs
SP6. Negation
SP7. Duration
SP8. Noun
SP9. Question
SP10. Particle

SP6 : Negation

• Negation typically occurs before the verb and any prepositional phrase.
  
  Subject + Negation + Predicate (Adjective / Verb / Prepositional Phrase)

  Example:

  1. He is not Chinese. tā bù shì zhōng guó rén 。 他 不 是 中 国 人 。 Subject Negation Predicate He not is Chinese Audio clip: view full post to listen. Adobe Flash is required 2. He is not tall. tā bù gāo 。 他 不 高 。 Subject Negation Predicate He not tall Audio clip: view full post to listen. Adobe Flash is required 3. I don’t have money. wǒ méi yǒu qián 。 我 没 有 钱 。 Subject Negation Predicate I no have money Audio clip: view full post to listen. Adobe Flash is required

• Negation usually occurs after an adverb.
  
  Subject + Adverbs + Negation + Predicate
  
  Example:

  1. They all cannot speak Japanese. tā men dōu bù huì shuō rì yǔ 。 他 们 都 不 会 说 日 语 。 Subject Adverbs Negation Predicate I all not know to speak Japanese Audio clip: view full post to listen. Adobe Flash is required 2. He neither smokes nor drinks. tā bú chōu yān ， yě bú hē jiǔ 。 他 不 抽 烟 ， 也 不 喝 酒 。 Subject Negation Predicate Adverbs Negation Predicate He not smoking also not drinking wine Audio clip: view full post to listen. Adobe Flash is required

• Certain adverbs may either precede or follow negation. The order of an adverb influences the meaning of the sentence.
  
  Subject + Adverbs + Negation + Predicate
  or
  Subject + Negation + Adverbs + Predicate
  

  Example:

  1.  He might not be at home. tā bù yī dìng zài jiā 。 他 不 一 定 在 家 。 Subject Negation Adverbs Predicate He not definitely at home Audio clip: view full post to listen. Adobe Flash is required 2. He is definitely not at the home. tā yī dìng bù zài jiā 。 他 一 定 不 在 家 。 Subject Adverbs Negation Predicate He definitely not at home Audio clip: view full post to listen. Adobe Flash is required

• The common words that are used to negate verbs and verb phrases in Chinese are 不 and 没 / 没有.
• Here are a few most commonly used negation phrases:

  不会，不好，不行，不能，不是，不够，不该，不敢，没有，没什么，没关系

• Try to make a few sentences with the above negation phrases.