{"id":3201,"date":"2019-11-06T08:26:27","date_gmt":"2019-11-06T08:26:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chinesemoment.com\/chinese-grammar\/chinese-grammar-quot-not-very-quot-with-bu-tai-quot-bu-tai-quot\/"},"modified":"2019-11-06T08:26:27","modified_gmt":"2019-11-06T08:26:27","slug":"chinese-grammar-quot-not-very-quot-with-bu-tai-quot-bu-tai-quot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chinesemoment.com\/mm\/chinese-grammar-quot-not-very-quot-with-bu-tai-quot-bu-tai-quot\/","title":{"rendered":"Chinese grammar: "Not very" with \u4e0d\u592a "bu tai""},"content":{"rendered":"
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You may be familiar with using "\u592a"(tài) to express "too" in the sense of "too expensive." There’s a similar pattern in the negative, which just means "not very" or "not so" (literally "not too"). Note that this pattern does not normally use "\u4e86" (le).<\/p>\n

Structure:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Subject + \u4e0d\u592a + Adjective<\/strong>
<\/strong><\/p>\n

Note: This pattern can also be used with non-adjectives. See below for more info.<\/p>\n

Examples:
<\/strong><\/p>\n

T\u0101 bú tài \u0261\u0101oxìn\u0261.
\u4ed6 \u4e0d \u592a \u9ad8\u5174\u3002<\/div>\n
He is not too happy.<\/div>\n

Structure with Modal Verbs:
<\/strong>This pattern can be used with modal verbs (e.g. \u4f1a, \u80fd) as well as psychological verbs (e.g. \u559c\u6b22, \u5d07\u62dc), as in the next two examples.<\/p>\n

Subject +  \u4e0d\u592a + Verb
Examples:
<\/strong><\/p>\n

T\u0101 bú tài xi\u01cen\u0261qù.
\u4ed6 \u4e0d \u592a \u60f3\u53bb\u3002<\/div>\n
He doesn’t really want to go.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n