不bù & 没méi | Negation in Chinese

Today we are going to learn the difference between the negative words 不bù & 没méi

bù méi
01
不bù:To express the willingness or habit.
wǒ bù xiǎng qù shāng chǎng
**我 不 想 去 商 场
(I don’t want to go to the shopping mall)
wǒ bù chōu yān
**我 不 抽 烟
(I don’t smoke)
没méi: It's objective narration. To negate something in the past.
wǒ zuó tiān méi qù shāng chǎng
**我 昨 天 没 去 商 场
(I didn’t go to the mall yesterday)
wǒ shàng ge xīng qī méi chōu yān
**我 上 个 星 期 没 抽 烟
(I didn't smoke last week)
02
不bù: To negate a certain quality or nature
zhèi ge píng guǒ bù hóng
** 这 个 苹 果 不 红
(The apple is not ripe)
没méi:To negate the change of a certain quality or nature
zhèi ge píng guò hái méi hóng
** 这 个 苹 果 还 没 红
(The apple is still not getting ripe)
03
不bù:Can be used in the past, present and future
yǐ qián wǒ bù pǎo bù, xiàn zài wǒ de
**以 前 我 不 跑 步, 现 在 我 的
xí guàn shì měi tiān pǎo bù
习 惯 是 每 天 跑 步
(I didn’t run before, and now my habit is running everyday)
wǒ xiàn zài bú qù chī fàn
**我 现 在 不 去 吃 饭,
wǒ hái yǒu gōng zuò yào zuò
我 还 有 工 作 要 做
(I don’t go to eat now. I have work to do)
míng tiān wǒ bú qù shàng bān
** 明 天 我 不 去 上 班,
jiā lǐ yǒu shì
家 里 有 事
(I don’t go to work tomorrow. I have some personal things to deal with)
没méi:Mostly used in the past
zuó tiān wǒ qǐng tā chī fàn tā méi lái
** 昨 天 我 请 他 吃 饭 他 没 来,
yīn wèi tā jiā bān dào hěn wǎn
因 为 他 加 班 到 很 晚
(I invited him to come over to have dinner yesterday but he didn’t come, cause he worked overtime)
The above are the differences between
不bù & 没méi.
There are some verbs that only use 不bù:
--不是bú shì (is not)
--不能bù néng (cannot)
--不会bú huì (is not able to)
--不知道bù zhī dào (not know)
--不应该bù yīng gāi (not should)
--不像bú xiàng (is not like)
--不想bù xiǎng (not want)
ps: only when 想xiǎng means want, the genative word is 不想bù xiǎng
There's a very common verb that only use 没méi:
--没有méi yǒu (not have)
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