“Yes” and “No” are the two most basic words in all languages. They are universal in the way that you can easily find an equivalent translation of these two words in almost all languages. While it can be said that the direct translation in Chinese would be “是” and “不” / “不是”, it is in fact not that straightforward.
English:Is this yours? Yes / No
Chinese:這是你的嗎?是 / 不是
English:Have you eaten yet? Yes / No
Chinese:你吃過飯了嗎?吃了 / 還沒吃
English:Do you have any brothers or sisters? Yes / No
Chinese:你有兄弟姐妹嗎?有/ 沒有
As you can see, not only can ‘No’ not be simply translated into ‘不’, but ‘Yes’ is not always translated into ‘是’ either.
So how do you say “Yes” or “No” in Chinese? Let’s look at several scenarios.
To answer such questions:
For example:
When the question involves action, as in “Have you / Has he [done something…]”, the answer would usually be:
For example:
When simply reflecting if a statement is correct or not, we can use:
You might have encountered confusions when a native Chinese answers your questions in English. Sometimes, you might not know if they agree with you or not.
This is because while English speakers’ YES- or NO- answer defines the subsequent statement affirmative or negative, Chinese speakers’ YES- or NO- answer refers to whether the question was a correct statement or not.
For example in English you might ask:
English | 中文 |
---|---|
Q. Are you not going to the party tonight? | 問:你今晚不去那個派對嗎? |
A. Yes, I am going. | 答:對, 我不去。(literally: Yes, I’m not going.) |
A. No, I’m not going. | 答:不, 我會去。(literally: No, I am going.) |
Note that the Yes & No are inverted.
Here is another example:
English | 中文 |
---|---|
Q. It wasn’t you who drew the picture? | 問:那幅畫不是你畫的啊? |
A. Yes, it was me. | 答:對, 不是我畫的。(literally: Yes, I didn’t draw it.) |
A. No, it wasn’t me. | 答:不,那是我畫的。(literally: No, it was indeed me.) |
Furthermore, 不 or 沒 are not the only words that means “no”. Other commonly used words include:
As we can see, the simplicity of ‘yes’ and ‘no’ in the English language is not conserved in the Chinese language. But do not feel intimidated by this – practice makes perfect!
我們會經常為大家探討漢字和語文的課題。
要是你有特別的相關課題希望我們探討,歡迎您告訴我們。
We discuss Chinese language and culture related topics on a regular basis.
If you would like us to discuss certain topics about Chinese, please let us know.
很多家長都已是我們 Facebook 群組【講媽 · 講爸園地】 的成員。歡迎你也加入我們,一起互相鼓勵和支持,共同為孩子的學習而努力。
Many parents are already part of our Facebook Group. If you’d like to take advantage of the collective wisdom of your fellow parents, please join us.
We’d love to hear from you.
Sagebooks Hongkong promotes independent reading and life-long learning by nurturing the child’s confidence, autonomy and self-teaching abilities. Since 2006. Find out more About Us.
© 2020 Sagebooks Hongkong. All rights reserved.
Sagebooks Hongkong promotes independent reading and life-long learning by nurturing the child’s confidence, autonomy and self-teaching abilities. Since 2006. Find out more About Us.
© 2020 Sagebooks Hongkong. All rights reserved.
Sagebooks Hongkong promotes independent reading and life-long learning by nurturing the child’s confidence, autonomy and self-teaching abilities. Since 2006. Find out more About Us.
© 2020 Sagebooks Hongkong. All rights reserved.
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