Negating with 不

Structure 不 + verb / adjective

不 (bù) is the most common negative: it negates verbs, adjectives and modal verbs, and covers habitual, present and future ("I don’t drink coffee", "it’s not expensive", "I don’t want to go"). It goes right before what it negates. Two exceptions: 有 is negated with 没有, and an action that did NOT happen in the past is negated with 没, not 不.

Examples

我wǒ不bù喝hē咖kā啡fēi。
I don’t drink coffee.
今jīn天tiān不bù冷lěng。
It’s not cold today.
他tā不bù是shì老lǎo师shī。
He’s not a teacher.

Levels are indicative: they follow the standard Chinese Grammar Wiki (AllSet Learning) progression, not an official HSK 3.0 mapping. We never assign levels by eye.

This point and the other 370, with audio on every example, inside Wanyu.