Negating Mandarin Sentences with 不 and 没有

不 and 没有 are Mandarin negation forms.

Introductory pattern#

不 + predicate; 没有 + noun phrase or verb phrase

Worked teaching example#

我不喝咖啡。我没有车。

I do not drink coffee. I do not have a car.

Practise the distinction#

Compare negation of an action in the first sentence with negation of possession in the second.

The example and exercise are newly written for this lesson. They do not report an event, interview or study. This introduction covers the displayed use, rather than all constructions involving the same words.

Reference#

Grammar reference. The reference supports the grammar point; no example sentence has been copied from it.