Mei 没 vs wei 未

[ralphmat123]

Hi there. I saw the word wei 未 used in a sentence to say "have not"

The sentence: 我还未吃饭 “I still haven't eaten".

I thought mei 没 was "not have" in the past. So what's the difference between mei 没 and wei 未 ?

Thanks

[SiMaKe]

"未 is only used in rather formal, written styles. In everyday Chinese,  没（有）is used instead."

(Tuttle)

[Hofmann]

未 implies "yet."

[Kamille]

还未 is a bit halfway between formal and common Chinese. You could also see things such as 尚未 in which is totally formal or 還沒 (还沒) which is totally casual.

[skylee]

The word 未 can be quite romantic, as in 夜未央、未央歌 ……

[Carl Chen]

We use "沒" in everyday conversation.

"未" is used in formal or academic style. Thus, you probably see this word in prose or poem.

For example, "尚未" is more formal than "還沒", though their meaning is the same.

[skylee]

Re #6, the reverse is true in Cantonese. In Cantonese, 未 is used in everyday conversation and 沒 is, well, not used for this sense. It is used for its other meaning as in 隱沒/ 沉沒, and in writing in standard Chinese.

[ralphmat123]

I actually saw this in a podcast by the website "ChineseClass101" which isn't formal at all. So it's strange they would have used what is apparently a formal word...

[tooironic]

I think it would be a mistake to teach beginning students the word 未 instead of 沒. The latter is essential vocab for conversation, while the former is something you can learn much later on when you want to improve your formal reading skills.