Can’t Figure Out Double Negatives in Chinese? Try This HSK Quiz!

Answer analysis:

Nǚ: Měicì dōu shì kàn diànyǐng, wèishénme búqù gōngyuán ne?
女：每次都是看电影，为什么不去公园呢？
Girl: Every time we go watch a movie, why not go to the park?

When the girl asks “为什么不去公园呢 (wèi shénme bú qù gōngyuán ne)” you can tell she is suggesting that they go to the park instead of the movies. In Chinese, this sentence is a double negative. The first negative is the “为什么(wèi shénme) why,” and the second negative is the “不 (bù) not.” In Chinese, any time there are two negatives they cancel out to become a positive. So, she is actually suggesting they go to the park instead.

Chinese has two forms of negative sentences: one is negative terms such as “no;” the other is the tone of one’s voice when asking a rhetorical question. These sentences are represented with two types of negative forms: one is whenever two negative words are placed around a positive, for example 不得不 (bùdébù); the other is as in the example above, when a negative term is placed with a rhetorical question in the same sentence. Both of these types express an affirmative meaning.

Examples：

Wǒ bùdébù huíjiā.
我不得不回家。
I must go home.

This is the same as——我必须回家。(Wǒ bìxū huíjiā.) I must go home.

Nándào tā bù zhīdào ma?
难道他不知道吗？
Don’t tell me he doesn’t know?

This is the same as——他应该知道。(Tā yīnggāi zhīdào.) He should know.

Nǐ búhuì bù míngbái ba.
你不会不明白吧。
You can’t not understand.

This is the same as——你一定明白。(Nǐ yídìng míngbái.) You definitely understand.