Affirmative-negative questions

A common way to form questions in Chinese is to first use a verb in the positive, then repeat the same verb in its negative form. The structure is:

Verb + 不 + Verb

It can also be done with adjectives (adjectives often behave like verbs in Chinese):

Adjective + 不 + Adjective

For example:

• 你 是 不 是 大人？

This is something like adding tag questions in English, in this case "Are you an adult or not?" If you wanted to translate it very literally, it would be "Are you or are you not an adult?" In any case, the structure is a very common way to ask questions in Chinese. The general sentence structure is:

Subject + Verb + 不 + Verb + Object

Some examples:

Positive negative questions

Subject	Verb	不	Verb	Object
她	是	不	是	中国人	？
他	吃	不	吃	肉	？
你	想	不	想	我	？

有 in positive-negative questions

Because the verb 有 is negated with 没 and not 不, the structure for positive-negative questions with 有 is:

Subject + 有没有 + Object

This could be for sentences about the present and possession, or to ask about verbs in the past. For example:

• 你 有 没有 我的 钱？
• 你 有 没有 看过 那 部 电影？

Two-character verbs in positive-negative questions

All of the verbs used so far have been single-character verbs. Using two-characters verbs in positive-negative questions is slightly trickier. You usually put 不 after the first character, then put the entire verb. For example 喜不喜欢 is the usual question form of 喜欢. You can repeat the whole two-character verb twice, but it's more common (and more elegant) to insert 不 after the first character. (The same is true of two-character adjectives.) For example:

• 喜欢 不 喜欢 (the whole word is repeated)
• 喜 不 喜欢 (only the first character is repeated)

• 高兴 不 高兴 (the whole word is repeated)
• 高 不 高兴 (only the first character is repeated)

See also

• Tag questions with bu
• Yes - no questions with ma
• Offering choices with haishi

Sources and further reading

Books

• New Practical Chinese Reader 1 (新实用汉语课本1) (pp. 57) →buy