{"id":3247,"date":"2019-11-08T07:35:21","date_gmt":"2019-11-08T07:35:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chinesemoment.com\/chinese-grammar\/chinese-grammar-affirmative-negative-questions\/"},"modified":"2019-11-08T07:35:21","modified_gmt":"2019-11-08T07:35:21","slug":"chinese-grammar-affirmative-negative-questions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chinesemoment.com\/fr\/chinese-grammar-affirmative-negative-questions\/","title":{"rendered":"Chinese grammar: Affirmative-negative questions"},"content":{"rendered":"
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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. These are called "affirmative-negative questions" or "alternative questions." The structure is:<\/p>\n

Verb Not Verb<\/p>\n

verb+\u4e0d+verb
Note that the question provides the listener with both possible answers: it’s either "Verb" or "\u4e0d Verb."<\/p>\n

For example:<\/strong><\/p>\n

N\u01d0 shì bú shì zh\u014dn\u0261 \u0261uó rén \uff1f
\u4f60 \u662f \u4e0d \u662f \u4e2d\u56fd\u4eba\uff1f<\/div>\n
Are you Chinese?<\/div>\n

Adjective Not Adjective<\/strong>
It can also be done with adjectives (adjectives often behave like verbs in Chinese):
Adjective+\u4e0d+Adjective<\/p>\n

Again, the question provides the listener with both possible answers: it’s either "Adjective" or "\u4e0d Adjective."<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

For example:<\/strong><\/p>\n

h\u01ceo bú h\u01ceo \uff1f
\u597d \u4e0d \u597d\uff1f<\/div>\n
Is it good?(or "good or not good?")<\/div>\n

Verb Not Verb with an Object
<\/strong><\/p>\n

If you want to add an object after the verb, the general sentence structure is:
subject+verb+\u4e0d+verb+object<\/p>\n

Some examples:<\/strong>
Positive negative questions<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Subject<\/th>\nVerb<\/em><\/th>\n\u4e0d<\/em><\/th>\nVerb<\/em><\/th>\nObject<\/th>\n <\/th>\nTranslation<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
\u5979<\/td>\n\u662f<\/em><\/td>\n\u4e0d<\/em><\/td>\n\u662f<\/em><\/td>\n\u4e2d\u56fd\u4eba<\/td>\n\uff1f<\/td>\nIs she Chinese?<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\u4ed6<\/td>\n\u5403<\/em><\/td>\n\u4e0d<\/em><\/td>\n\u5403<\/em><\/td>\n\u8089<\/td>\n\uff1f<\/td>\nDoes he eat meat?<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\u4f60<\/td>\n\u60f3<\/em><\/td>\n\u4e0d<\/em><\/td>\n\u60f3<\/em><\/td>\n\u6211<\/td>\n\uff1f<\/td>\nDo you miss me?<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

\u6709 in positive-negative questions<\/strong>
Because the verb \u6709 is negated with \u6ca1 and not \u4e0d, the structure for positive-negative questions with \u6709 is:
subject+\u6709\u6ca1\u6709+object<\/p>\n

The possible answers are: "\u6709" or "\u6ca1\u6709."<\/p>\n

The questions could be be asking a<\/em>bout current possession ("do you have it or not?"), or to ask a<\/em>bout verbs in the past ("did you do it or not?").<\/p>\n

For example:<\/strong><\/p>\n

N\u01d0 y\u01d2u méi y\u01d2u jiè w\u01d2 de qián \uff1f
\u4f60 \u6709 \u6ca1\u6709 \u501f \u6211\u7684 \u94b1\uff1f<\/div>\n
Did you borrow my money?<\/div>\n

Two-character verbs in positive-negative questions
<\/strong><\/p>\n

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 \u4e0d after the first character, then put the entire verb. For example \u559c\u4e0d\u559c\u6b22 is the usual question form of \u559c\u6b22. You can repeat the whole two-character verb twice, but it’s more common (and more elegant) to insert \u4e0d after the first character. (The same is true of two-character adjectives.) For example:<\/p>\n

\u559c\u6b22 \u4e0d \u559c\u6b22 (the whole word is repeated)
\u559c \u4e0d \u559c\u6b22 (o<\/em>nly the first character is repeated)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n