Difference between revisions of "Expressing the only two possibilities"

Revision as of 04:26, 25 November 2013

To describe a situation as being one of only two possibilities, you can use the structure: "不是...就是..." (búshi...jiùshì...)

不是 + A, 就是 + B

This is like saying "if it's not A, then it's B" in English. A and B can be verbs, adjectives or nouns.

他整天 不是 打游戏 就是 睡觉。All day, if he's not playing games, he's sleeping.
他们约会不是去咖啡馆就是去电影院。When they go on dates, if it's not to a coffee shop, then it's to the movie theater.
我买的衣服不是大就是小，都不能穿。The clothes that I bought are either too big or too small, I can't wear any of them.
她穿的衣服不是 LV 就是 Gucci！If the clothes that she wears aren't Louis Vuitton, then they're Gucci!

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	To describe a situation as being one of only two possibilities, you can use the structure: "不是...就是..." (búshi...jiùshì...)		To describe a situation as being one of only two possibilities, you can use the structure: "不是...就是..." (búshi...jiùshì...)