posted by huyilin on January 4, 2014 | 5 comments
I am having trouble with double negatives in Chinese, as in 我未尝没有试过这个办法，但不太好用。"I tried this method, but it was not very useful". Is my understanding of this sentence correct? What flavour does the use of a double negative add to a sentence? Can anyone suggest other such expressions? Thank you!
zhanglexander on January 5, 2014 | reply
it can be translated primitively as "I'm not didn't have tried this method,xxxxxx" ,yes your understanding is right, by the understanding of the basic meaning,you can try various expressions
Is there maybe a 泡泡中文 lesson that could help me get a better understanding?Thanks zhangalexander, for your reply!
@huyilin,Double negatives = affirmative. So in this sentence, it means"I have tried this method, but it wasn't very useful" - Your understanding is correct!e.g.我不是不想去(There are two 不, so this sentence is affirmative) it means"I'd like to go"But Double negatives sentences are usually followed with "but…" or "just..." explanations as in我不是不想去，但是我真的太累了 or 我不是不明白，只是不想说。我不是不想回答你的问题，只是之前没看见～～哈哈😄
@Grace: 感谢你的回答，我已经猜想你门大概没见到我的问题，没事！那么，下面这个例句对不对？“我们无话不可说”（= 我们没有话不能说出来，我们什么都能说出来）。另外，double negatives用中文怎么说呢？双层否定？谢谢，祝好！