不 vs 没 — Chinese has two words for "not"
Use 不 for the present, the future, habits and all opinions or wishes: 我不吃肉 — I don't eat meat. Use 没 only to say something did not happen or does not exist: 我没去 — I didn't go. 有 is always negated with 没.
Structure
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不 + Verb / Adjective
Present, future, habitual or hypothetical negation.
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没(有) + Verb
The action did not happen.
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没有 + Noun
Do not have / there is no…
How it works
The split is about time and reality, not about tense. 不 denies something as a general truth, a plan, a preference or a habit: 我不喝咖啡 (I don't drink coffee — as a rule), 明天我不去 (I'm not going tomorrow).
没 denies that an event took place, or that something exists: 我没喝咖啡 (I didn't drink coffee — on that occasion), 我没有车 (I don't have a car). The two are not interchangeable: 我不喝了 means "I'll stop drinking"; 我没喝 means "I never drank any".
Three hard rules follow. (1) 有 is negated only with 没 — 不有 does not exist. (2) 没 cancels 了: 我吃了 → 我没吃, never 没吃了. (3) mental verbs and adjectives normally take 不: 不是, 不想, 不喜欢, 不冷.
One tone trap: 不 is 4th tone alone (bù) but shifts to 2nd tone before another 4th tone — 不是 is bú shì, 不去 is bú qù.
Examples
Quick drill — 5 questions
Five fill-in-the-gap questions built from the example sentences above. No sign-up, no score kept — just a check that the pattern has actually landed.
Choose the word that belongs in the gap:
Common mistakes
| ✗ Wrong | ✓ Right | Why |
|---|---|---|
| 我不有钱。 | 我没有钱。 | 有 is negated with 没 only. 不有 is not a possible Chinese word. |
| 我没吃了。 | 我没吃。 | 没 already says the action did not happen, so the completion particle 了 must go. |
| 我没喜欢咖啡。 | 我不喜欢咖啡。 | Liking is a state, not an event. States and opinions take 不. |
不 vs 没 — the two negations — frequently asked questions
What is the difference between 不 and 没 in Chinese?
不 (bù) negates the present, the future, habits, opinions and wishes: 我不吃肉 — I don't eat meat. 没 (méi) negates a completed action or the existence of something: 我没吃 — I didn't eat; 我没有车 — I don't have a car. Roughly, 不 is "don't/won't" and 没 is "didn't/haven't".
How do you negate 有 in Chinese?
Only with 没: 没有 (méiyǒu). 不有 does not exist in Chinese. This is the one negation rule with no exceptions.
Can 没 and 了 appear in the same sentence?
Not with the completion 了. 我吃了 (I ate) becomes 我没吃 (I didn't eat) — the 了 is deleted, because 没 already carries the information that the event never happened.
Why is 不 sometimes pronounced bú?
Tone sandhi: 不 is 4th tone on its own but becomes 2nd tone before another 4th-tone syllable. So 不是 is bú shì and 不去 is bú qù, while 不吃 stays bù chī.
Next, learn
Put it to work
Drill the vocabulary for this level on the HSK 1 word list, rebuild scrambled sentences in the Sentence Builder, read graded stories that use this pattern in the story library, or follow a step-by-step route through the whole site in Guided Learning Paths.