Affirmative-negative questions
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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:
Contents
Verb Not Verb
Verb + 不 + Verb
For example:
- 你 是 不 是 中国人？
Note that the question provides the listener with both possible answers: it's either "Verb" or "不 Verb."
Adjective Not Adjective
It can also be done with adjectives (adjectives often behave like verbs in Chinese):
Adjective + 不 + Adjective
For example:
- 好 不 好？
Again, the question provides the listener with both possible answers: it's either "Adjective" or "不 Adjective."
These are 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.
Verb Not Verb with an Object
If you want to add an object after the verb, the general sentence structure is:
Subject + Verb + 不 + Verb + Object
Some examples:
| 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
The possible answers are: "有" or "没有."
The questions could be be asking about current possession ("do you have it or not?"), or to ask about verbs in the past ("did you do it or not?").
For example:
- 你 有 没有 借 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
Sources and further reading
Books
- Chinese: An Essential Grammar, Second Edition (pp. 141-4) →buy
- Integrated Chinese: Level 1, Part 1 (3rd ed) (pp. 86) →buy
- New Practical Chinese Reader 1 (新实用汉语课本1) (pp. 87) →buy
- New Practical Chinese Reader 1 (新实用汉语课本1)(2nd ed) (pp. 102, 250-1) →buy
