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title: Yes and no — there is no single word — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics
description: «Yes and no — there is no single word», a lesson of the chinese street course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: English has one handy «yes» and one «no».
---

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# Yes and no — there is no single word

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Lesson 4 of the chinese street course of Mova's primary school: 13 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/chinese-street/4-yes-and-no/).

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- [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/4-yes-and-no/0/) — English has one handy «yes» and one «no».
- [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/4-yes-and-no/1/) — Mandarin doesn't: you answer by repeating the verb of the question, so the «yes» changes every time.
- [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/4-yes-and-no/2/) — Ming asks «shì nǐ de ma?» (is it yours?) and you say shì (it is) or bú shì (it isn't).
- [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/4-yes-and-no/4/) — His granny holds out a bun, «yào bu yào?», and you say yào.
- [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/4-yes-and-no/5/) — Then there are the playground words: duì (right!), bú duì (wrong!), hǎo (OK!), xíng (that works) and the dreaded parent's bù xíng (no way).
- [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/4-yes-and-no/6/) — Listen to the question, catch its verb, and give it back: that is the whole trick.
- [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/4-yes-and-no/8/) — bú shì («BOO SHR!») means no, it isn't; bù becomes rising bú before a falling tone.
- [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/4-yes-and-no/9/) — duì («DWAY!», falling) means right, correct; kids say it a lot, often three times: duì duì duì.
- [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/4-yes-and-no/11/) — hǎo («how», dipping) means OK or good, agreeing to a plan; it is not the English question word how, which is zěnme.
- [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/4-yes-and-no/14/) — yào («YOW!», falling) means want, yes please, and also «will» or «must»; to an adult add xièxie.
- [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/4-yes-and-no/15/) — bú yào («BOO YOW!») means don't want, or don't! (stop it!); to a granny offering food, bú yòng le, xièxie (no need, thanks) is kinder.
- [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/4-yes-and-no/16/) — yǒu («yo», dipping) means have, there is, yes we have; it is not the English «you», which is nǐ.
- [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/4-yes-and-no/17/) — méiyǒu («MAY-yo») means haven't got, there isn't, or didn't; the «not» for yǒu is always méi, never bù.

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- ← previous: [Thank you, sorry, excuse me](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/3-thank-you-sorry-excuse-me/)
- next →: [Names and "how old are you?"](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/5-names-and-how-old/)
- ↑ back to [Chinese street](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/)