Tony24 Posted February 12, 2019 at 02:13 AM Report Share Posted February 12, 2019 at 02:13 AM Hello everyone! I need your help again, yesterday I was doing some exercises about modal 了, while doing them I came across this sentence : 现在我们不每天学习了。 I had no problem understanding its meaning, what puzzled me was the position of 不 in the sentence above. Isn’t it supposed to go right before 学习? Any help would be very appreciated! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DavyJonesLocker Posted February 12, 2019 at 03:40 AM Report Share Posted February 12, 2019 at 03:40 AM Different meanings I assume 现在我们不每天学习了 = now we don't study everyday day. (e.g only study Mon to Fri) 现在我们每天不学习了 = now everyday we don't study, i.e we don't study at all now. I am not convinced about the 了 It is probably optional here and I think it sounds better without it. Wait for experts on here to comment as I'm STILL not entirely sure when you use the 了 It seems to come up far less in native material than in text books. 了 is like a polish or gloss on top of a sentence in many cases. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Publius Posted February 12, 2019 at 03:57 AM Report Share Posted February 12, 2019 at 03:57 AM 7 hours ago, Tony24 said: what puzzled me was the position of 不 in the sentence above. Isn’t it supposed to go right before 学习? Who told you that? 不 is an adverb. It goes before the element it negates. [不每天]学习 means "study" is not true for every day. You could go study, not study, study, study, not study, not study... 每天[不学习] means "not study" is true for every day. Your go not study, not study, not study, not study, not study... In Chinese, the position of a negation word is fixed, and we don't have negative pronouns. That's why it's particularly hard for a Chinese person to understand partial negation in English such as: All that glitters is not gold. 闪光的不都是金子。 (When Chinese negation rule is applied to English, it would mean 所有闪光的都不是金子, which is a false statement. To express the Bard's sentiment, the only acceptable word order in Chinese is "Not all that glitters is gold.") Everything's not fine. 并非一切都好。 (To an inexperienced English learner from China, it means everything is wrong. Because in Chinese the correct word order is "Not everything is fine.") 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Publius Posted February 12, 2019 at 04:39 AM Report Share Posted February 12, 2019 at 04:39 AM 49 minutes ago, DavyJonesLocker said: I am not convinced about the 了 It is probably optional here and I think it sounds better without it. It is not optional if you want to draw attention to the change of schedule, e.g. studying everyday before -> studying every other day now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DavyJonesLocker Posted February 12, 2019 at 05:48 AM Report Share Posted February 12, 2019 at 05:48 AM 1 hour ago, Publius said: It is not optional if you want to draw attention to the change of schedule, e.g. studying everyday before -> studying every other day now. thanks Publius. seems obvious now that you mention it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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