不

Usage notes
This character is not to be confused with visually similar but unrelated  or.

Descendants

 * ( character derived from )
 * ( character derived from )

Glyph origin

 * the calyx of a flower. 不 was then composed into a phono-semantic character with the pictograph for mouth, to form , representing “no” (negation). This composed meaning then spread back to the original character 不, making it a synonym of 否. A new character of was eventually created to represent the original meaning of calyx.

Following ’s interpretation, Karlgren and Wieger interpret it as a bird flying toward the sky. The sky being the limit for the bird, thus the idea of negation.

Etymology 1
Old Chinese had two sets of negatives: the initial *p-series and the initial *m-series. 不 is the prototype of the *p-series of negatives. Although it is the usual Literary Chinese negative attested from the oracle bone script down, its current usage is now confined to Mandarin dialects. In the oracle bone inscriptions, a total of five negative particles can be found:, , , and. With the exception of (discussed later), the remaining can be neatly organised into the following system:

argued that the *m-type negatives are modal (i.e. negative verbs which are thought of as controllable by the ), whereas the *p-type negatives are non-modal (imply uncontrollability; actions which are beyond the control of living persons).

In the *p-series, 不 usually goes with intransitive verbs in the oracle bone script, and with transitive ones, although there are some glaring exceptions. Little or no pattern can be discerned in the *m-type category. also proposed that the difference between the two vowel series was whether they preceded “stative, eventive, passive” (*-V series) or “non-stative, non-eventive, active” (*-ɯd series) verbs.

It is possible that the two parallel series of negatives in Old Chinese represent a fusion of the common Sino–Tibetan (carried by the eastward-migrating early Sino–Tibetans) and an indigenous negation system in Central China, and that the merger had been complete by the  times. Compare a similar system in Proto-Tai:, , ; 🇨🇬.

The development from Old Chinese to Middle Chinese was not regular. The character 不 replaced 弗 (OC *pɯd, MC *piut), to respect the for, although the pronunciation has remained in nearly all topolects (e.g. Beijing Mandarin bù, Guangzhou Cantonese bat1, Meixian Hakka bud5, Shanghainese Wu peq). The Modern Standard Mandarin pronunciation is also from this checked coda word, but this word escaped from regular sound changes during its evolution to the modern pronunciation bù. The expected reading is fu (tone undetermined), with labiodentalisation. The rising-tone pronunciation had a Middle Chinese homophone, which is now primarily used in compounds, and demonstrates the regular development into modern f-. Another example of a high-frequency word escaping this sound change is, which resulted in the late coinage of the character.

不 is cognate with other negation particles in the *p-type category:


 * – can be safely regarded as a fusion of and ;
 * ; and
 * ; and
 * ; and

Cognate with 🇨🇬.

Definitions

 * 1)  not
 * 2)  cannot
 * 3)  no (to a positive polar question); yes (to a negative polar question)
 * 1)  cannot
 * 2)  no (to a positive polar question); yes (to a negative polar question)
 * 1)  no (to a positive polar question); yes (to a negative polar question)
 * 1)  no (to a positive polar question); yes (to a negative polar question)

Usage notes

 * The tone changes from fourth to second tone when followed by a fourth-tone syllable.
 * The past-perfect form of 不 is or, not *不了
 * Note that the 4th sentence does not mean "I have not become a soldier". Syntactically, 不 is a verb prefix that forms a stative verb with the verb to be negated. Therefore it can not be modified by the perfective aspect marker, which modifies only dynamic verbs. When 了 appears in a 不 sentence, it usually functions as a marker of "currently relevant state" instead.
 * 不 can not be used before the verb . Use instead.
 * Incorrect:
 * *我不有手機.
 * Correct:
 * 不 can not be used before compounds beginning with 有, or another 不. Depending on the context, other negative particles must be used instead which formally contain a predicate or auxiliary, e.g.,, , imperfective , epistemic.
 * Incorrect:
 * *這個問題不不值一提.
 * Correct:
 * The verb can be elided, as in the following:
 * An equivalent construction is not valid in Cantonese.
 * "not" and "can not" are distinguished only by word order.
 * Since 不 must be placed before a complement, if there is no complement in the sentence, a placeholder can be used for this purpose.
 * Although 不 can be used like English no to answer a yes/no question, it is more natural to answer it by changing the question to a negative statement.
 * When read in languages, such as  or Suzhounese, the syllable is pronounced the same as, despite the existing expected pronunciation
 * Correct:
 * The verb can be elided, as in the following:
 * An equivalent construction is not valid in Cantonese.
 * "not" and "can not" are distinguished only by word order.
 * Since 不 must be placed before a complement, if there is no complement in the sentence, a placeholder can be used for this purpose.
 * Although 不 can be used like English no to answer a yes/no question, it is more natural to answer it by changing the question to a negative statement.
 * When read in languages, such as  or Suzhounese, the syllable is pronounced the same as, despite the existing expected pronunciation
 * Since 不 must be placed before a complement, if there is no complement in the sentence, a placeholder can be used for this purpose.
 * Although 不 can be used like English no to answer a yes/no question, it is more natural to answer it by changing the question to a negative statement.
 * When read in languages, such as  or Suzhounese, the syllable is pronounced the same as, despite the existing expected pronunciation
 * Although 不 can be used like English no to answer a yes/no question, it is more natural to answer it by changing the question to a negative statement.
 * When read in languages, such as  or Suzhounese, the syllable is pronounced the same as, despite the existing expected pronunciation
 * When read in languages, such as  or Suzhounese, the syllable is pronounced the same as, despite the existing expected pronunciation
 * When read in languages, such as  or Suzhounese, the syllable is pronounced the same as, despite the existing expected pronunciation
 * When read in languages, such as  or Suzhounese, the syllable is pronounced the same as, despite the existing expected pronunciation

Kanji

 * 1) not, non-, un-

Prefix

 * 1) un-, non-, in-
 * 2) bad, poor
 * 1) bad, poor

Etymology 1
From.

Etymology 2
From.

Usage notes

 * The reading is primarily used before  or.