不比 (bù bǐ) — not as ... as; no more ... than; not necessarily

Definition

不比 negates the 比 comparison to soften it ('not as … as', 'no more … than') — softer and more tentative than the plain 比 '…er than' construction.

verb
not as ... asno more ... thannot necessarily

Examples

  • 不比，。
    Tā bù bǐ wǒ gāo, dàn pǎo dé bǐ wǒ kuài.
    He is not taller than me, but he runs faster than me.
  • 不比，。
    Zhè ge bàn fǎ bù bǐ nà ge hǎo, dàn gèng shěng qián.
    This method is not necessarily better than that one, but it saves more money.
  • 不比，。
    Běi jīng de dōng tiān bù bǐ hā ěr bīn lěng, dàn yě líng xià hǎo jǐ dù.
    Beijing's winter is not as cold as Harbin's, but it's still several degrees below zero.

Origin

Characters in this word

A drawing of the thing itself, worn down over three thousand years into a few strokes.

The picture in 不 originally showed a flower’s calyx; the “no” sense came later from a related character, not from this picture.

Open 不 →

Most characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.

  • 匕匕bǐ
  • 匕匕bǐ

比 is two 匕 placed side by side. Chu Wan-li treats both as sound parts, while an old reading takes the side-by-side arrangement as putting things next to each other.

Open 比 →

Grammar

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