不 bù — not, no — the general negative, placed before verbs and adjectives
bù (fourth tone, falling)
not, no — the general negative, placed before verbs and adjectives
4 strokesRadical 一Frequency #4
Pinyin
- bù (fourth tone, falling)
not, no — the general negative, placed before verbs and adjectives
Mnemonic
Four strokes hanging from the long horizontal that the dictionary files it under. The picture beneath is a plant: the calyx of a flower with the roots below it. Nothing in the drawing is negative — the word bù merely sounded like it and took the graph over. What has to be drilled instead is the tone. 不 is fourth tone by itself and before first, second and third tones (不大, 不来, 不好), but shifts to bú before another fourth tone: 不是 bú shì, 不客气 bú kèqi.
A memory aid written by HSK Guide editors. It is not an etymology and does not describe the historical origin of the character.
Words containing 不
- 不bù (fourth tone, falling)not (negates verbs, adjectives and modal verbs)
- 不过不過búguò (second tone, rising)but, however (a lighter contrast than 但是)
- 不但búdàn (second tone, rising)not only … (but also)
- 差不多chàbuduō (fourth tone, falling)about the same, close enough, not much different
- 不管bùguǎn (fourth tone, falling)no matter (what/how…), regardless of
- 对不起對不起duìbuqǐ (fourth tone, falling)sorry; excuse me
- 不客气不客氣bú (second tone, rising) kèqi (fourth tone, falling)you’re welcome, not at all