Choose 不 or 没

Use 不 for habits, preferences and intentions

• 不 commonly denies a regular action, a preference, a description or an intention. The coffee sentence can describe a habit; the school sentence describes a plan.
• Place 不 directly before the verb or description you are denying. 我不忙 means “I am not busy”.
• 不 is normally bù, but before a fourth-tone syllable it is pronounced bú. That is why the second example shows bú qù.

Use 没 or 没有 for an action that did not happen

• 没 and 没有 can deny that an action happened or has been completed. 我昨天没有喝咖啡 has the same basic meaning as the first example.
• 还没 means “not yet”. It is useful when an action may happen later, but has not happened at the time of speaking.
• Compare 我不吃 with 我没吃. The first can mean “I will not eat” or “I do not eat”; the second says that eating has not happened. Decide what you mean before choosing the negative.

Do not turn this into a past-versus-present rule

• Time words alone do not select the negative. 我昨天不想去 means “I did not want to go yesterday”. The sentence describes a wish, so 不想 is appropriate even with 昨天.
• With possession, use 没有 regardless of tense: 我没有钱 means “I have no money”. The ordinary negative of 有 is 没有, not 不有.
• When denying a completed action in a simple sentence, do not keep the completed-action 了 after the verb: 我买了书 becomes 我没买书. Other uses of 了 need their own patterns, so avoid treating every 了 in every sentence alike.

A decision you can make while speaking

1. Is the sentence about having something? Start with 没有.
2. Are you saying an action did not happen, or has not happened yet? Try 没 or 没有.
3. Are you describing a habit, preference, quality or intention? Try 不.
4. Read the whole sentence aloud. Check whether your negative now expresses the intended meaning, rather than simply matching an English “not”.

Choose the missing word