Mandarin · Chapter 5 · Lesson 13 · Grammar primer

Comparatives

Grammar for HSK 2.

The short version

The negative of 比 (bǐ) is not 不比 (bù bǐ)

A 比 (bǐ) comparison takes a bare adjective with no 很 (hěn): 我比他高 (wǒ bǐ tā gāo). To flip it you need a different frame entirely, 没有 (méi yǒu)…那么 (nà me): 我没有他那么高 (wǒ méi yǒu tā nà me gāo). The obvious-looking 不比 (bù bǐ) sounds genuinely odd in Mandarin, and it is exactly the form learners reach for instinctively.

我没有他那么高。 Wǒ méi yǒu tā nà me gāo.

I'm not as tall as him.

That's the gist. The full article goes deeper - more examples, the edge cases, the why - and the practice below scores like a vocabulary session and earns the same XP.

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Practice

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10-question session

One question at a time, mixed across the exercises in this lesson. Miss one and it comes back round before the end. There are 24 in all: practise more afterwards if you want them.

Lesson 13 of 22 in this chapter

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