Chinese For Dummies (18 page)

Bù and méiyǒu: Total negation

Boo! Scare you? Don't worry. I'm just being negative in Chinese. That's right: The word
bù
is pronounced the same way a ghost would say it (boo) and is often spoken with the same intensity.

Bù
can negate something you've done in the past or the present (or at least indicate you don't generally do it these days), and it can also help negate something in the future:

Diànyǐngyuàn xīngqīliù bù kāimén.
电影院星期六不开门
. (
電影院星期六不開門
.) (dyan-yeeng-ywan sheeng-chee-lyo boo kye-mun.) (
The movie theatre won't be open on Saturday.
)

Tā xiǎo de shíhòu bù xǐhuān chī shūcài.
他小的时候不喜欢吃蔬菜
. (
他小的時候不喜歡吃蔬菜
.) (tah shyaow duh shir-ho boo she-hwahn chir shoo-tsye.) (
When he was young, he didn't like to eat vegetables.
)

Wǒ bú huà huàr.
我不画画儿
. (
我不畫畫兒
.) (waw boo hwah hwar.) (
I don't paint.
)

Wǒ búyào chàng gē.
我不要唱歌
. (waw boo-yaow chahng guh.) (
I don't want to sing.
)

The negative prefix
bù
is usually spoken with a fourth (falling) tone. However, when it precedes a syllable with another fourth tone,
bù
becomes a second (rising) tone instead, as in such words as
búqù
不去
(boo-chew) (
won't/didn't/doesn't go
) and
búyào
不要
(boo-yaow) (
don't/didn't/won't want
). For more about tones, head to
Chapter 1
.

In addition to being part of the question
yǒu méiyǒu
(
do you have/did it
),
méiyǒu
is another negative prefix that also goes before a verb. It refers only to the past, though, and means either something didn't happen, or at least didn't happen on a particular occasion:

Wǒ méiyǒu kàn nèi bù diànyǐng.
我没有看那部电影
. (
我沒有看那部電影
.) (waw mayo kahn nay boo dyan-yeeng.) (
I didn't see that movie.
)

Zuótiān méiyǒu xiàyǔ.
昨天没有下雨
. (
昨天沒有下雨
.) (dzwaw-tyan mayo shyah-yew.) (
It didn't rain yesterday.
)

If the aspect marker
guò
is at the end of the verb
méiyǒu,
it means the action never happened (up until now) in the past. By the way, you'll sometimes find that
méiyǒu
is shortened just to
méi:

Wǒ méi qù guò Fǎguó.
我没去过法国
. (
我沒去過法國
.) (waw may chyew gwaw fah-gwaw.) (
I've never been to France.
)

Wǒ méi chī guò Yìndù cài.
我没吃过印度菜
. (
我沒吃過印度菜
.) (wo may chir gwaw een-doo tsye.) (
I've never eaten Indian food.
)

Talkin' the Talk

Harvey, Stella, and Laurie discuss where to go for dinner. (Track 4)

Harvey:

Nǐmen jīntiān wǎnshàng yào búyào qù fànguǎn chīfàn?

nee-mun jin-tyan wahn-shahng yaow boo-yaow chyew fahn-gwahn chir-fahn?

Do you both want to go to a restaurant tonight?

Stella:

Nà tài hǎole. Dāngrán yào.

nah tye how-luh. dahng-rahn yaow.

That's a great idea. Of course I'd like to go.

Laurie:

Wǒ búyào. Wǒ méiyǒu qián.

waw boo-yaow. waw mayo chyan.

I don't want to. I have no money.

Harvey:

Wǒ yě méiyǒu qián, dànshì méiyǒu guānxi. Wǒ zhīdào yíge hěn hǎo, hěn piányì de Zhōngguó fànguǎn.

waw yeah mayo chyan, dahn-shir mayo gwahn-she. waw jir-daow ee-guh hun how, hun pyan-yee duh joong-gwaw fahn-gwan.

I don't have any money either, but it doesn't matter. I know a great but very inexpensive Chinese restaurant.

Laurie:

Hǎo ba. Zánmen zǒu ba.

how bah. dzah-men dzoe bah.

Okay. Let's go.

Getting possessive with the particle de

The particle
de
的
is ubiquitous in Chinese. Wherever you turn, there it is.
Wǒde tiān!
我的天
! (waw-duh tyan) (
My goodness!
) Oops . . . there it is again. It's easy to use. All you have to do is attach it to the end of the pronoun, such as
nǐde chē
你的车
(
你的車
) (nee-duh chuh) (
your car
), or other modifier, such as
tā gōngsī de jīnglǐ
他公司的经理
(
他公司的經理
) (tah goong-suh duh jeeng-lee) (
his company's manager
), and — voilà — it indicates possession.

The particle
de
acts as the
's
in English when it's not attached to a pronoun. It also makes the process of modification exactly the opposite of the French possessive
de
or the English
of,
with which you may be tempted to compare it.

Asking Questions

You have a few easy ways to ask questions in Chinese at your disposal. Hopefully you're so curious about the world around you these days that you're itching to ask lots of questions when you know how. I break them down in the following sections.

The question particle ma

By far the easiest way to ask a question is simply to end any given statement with a
ma.
That automatically makes it into a question. For example,
Tā chīfàn.
他吃饭
. (
他吃飯
.) (tah chir-fahn.) (
He's eating./He eats.
) becomes
Tā chīfàn ma?
他吃饭吗
? (
他吃飯嗎
?) (tah chir-fahn mah?) (
Is he eating?/Does he eat?
)
Nǐ shuō Zhōngwén.
你说中文
. (
你說中文
.) (nee shwaw joong-one.) (
You speak Chinese.
) becomes
Nǐ shuō Zhōngwén ma?
你说中文吗
? (
你說中文嗎
?) (nee shwaw joong-one mah?) (
Do you speak Chinese?
)

Yes/no choice questions using bù between repeating verbs

Another way you can ask a Chinese question is to repeat the verb in its negative form. The English equivalent is to say something like
Do you eat, not eat?
Remember:
This format can be used for only yes-or-no questions, though. Here are some examples:

Nǐ shì búshì Zhōngguórén?
你是不是中国人
? (
你是不是中國人
?) (nee shir boo-shir joong-gwaw-run?) (
Are you Chinese?
)

Tāmen xǐhuān bùxǐhuān chī Zhōngguó cài?
他们喜欢不喜欢吃中国菜
? (
他們喜歡不喜歡吃中國菜
?) (tah-men she-hwahn boo-she-hwahn chir joong-gwaw tsye?) (
Do they like to eat Chinese food?
)

Tā yào búyào háizi?
他要不要孩子
? (tah yaow boo-yaow hi-dzuh?) (
Does he want children?
)

To answer this type of question, all you have to do is omit either the positive verb or the negative prefix and the verb following it:

Nǐ hǎo bù hǎo?
你好不好
? (nee how boo how?) (
How are you?
[Literally:
Are you good or not good?
])

Wǒ hǎo.
我好
. (waw how.)
(
I'm okay.
) or
Wǒ bùhǎo.
我不好
. (waw boo-how.) (
I'm not okay.
)

Some Chinese verbs, such as
xǐhuān
喜欢
(
喜歡
) (she-hwan) (
to like/to want
), have two syllables. When Chinese people speak quickly, they may leave out the second syllable in a few bisyllabic verbs and even a few auxiliary verbs the first time they come up in the verb-
bù
-verb pattern. So instead of saying
Tā xǐhuān bùxǐhuān hē jiǔ?
她喜欢不喜欢喝酒
? (
她喜歡不喜歡喝酒
?) (tah she-hwan boo-she-hwan huh jyo?) to mean
Does he or she like to drink wine?,
someone may say
Tā xǐ bùxǐhuān hē jiǔ?
她喜不喜欢喝酒
? (
她喜不喜歡喝酒
?) (tah she boo-she-hwan huh jyoe?).