Wanyu · 万语 Español

HSK 6 Adverbs

决 / 断 / 绝 / 万万 (+ 不/无)

Absolutely (not) — 决 / 断 / 绝 / 万万

Structure 决/断/绝/万万 + 不/无/没 + verb

In cultivated register, certain monosyllables precede a negative to make it categorical and solemn, going beyond the everyday 绝对 (HSK 5) or 一点也不. 决不 (juébù) = "under no circumstances"; 断不 (duànbù) = "in no way" (very literary); 绝无 / 绝不 (juéwú / juébù) = "absolutely no", as in 绝无此事 "there is no such thing"; 万万 (wànwàn) is the strongest of all and almost always pairs with 不 / 没(有), as in 万万没想到 "I would never (in a million years) have imagined". These are fixed, emphatic formulas of the press, essay and oratory, not casual speech.

Examples

  • duìshìmenjuédiàoqīngxīn

    On this matter we must under no circumstances take it lightly.

  • duànhuìyingzhèyàngdetiáojiàn

    He would in no way agree to such conditions.

  • gōngshēngmíngjuéshì

    The company stated that there is absolutely no such thing.

  • jiéguǒjìngshìwànwànméixiǎngdào

    That the outcome would be like this — I'd never in a million years have imagined it.

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.

Download on the App Store