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Used to negate a statement, indicating 'not' or 'no'.
他不是医生。
He is not a doctor.
这不是我的包。
This is not my bag.
Used in both spoken and written Chinese to form negative sentences. Often paired with '是' (shì, 'to be') for emphasis.
To negate a sentence with '是', simply replace '是' with '不是'. Example: '这是书' (This is a book) → '这不是书' (This is not a book).
Unlike English, Chinese does not use auxiliary verbs (e.g., 'do not') for negation. The particle '不' (bù) is placed before the verb to negate it. For '是', the negation is '不是'.
Combination of '不' (bù, 'not') and '是' (shì, 'to be'). '不' dates back to Old Chinese (c. 1250–1050 BCE) and '是' originally meant 'correct' before evolving into the verb 'to be'.
'不是' is the standard negation for '是' in modern Mandarin. In classical Chinese, negation was often expressed with '非' (fēi), but '不是' has been the dominant form since the Tang Dynasty (618–907 CE).