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+--- Thread: 不 vs. 否 (/thread-4238.html)
不 vs. 否 - totsubo - 2009-10-22
I'm having a lot of trouble remember the difference between these. Come to think of it I can't figure out what the difference is!
Anyone have any tips for separating these two in both meaning and writing?
Thanks!
不 vs. 否 - Jarvik7 - 2009-10-22
A good way to think of it is this:
広辞苑 Wrote:不{副}…ず。下のことばを打ち消す否定詞不 cancels out what comes after
否{形}ある性質の逆の面を意味することば。
否 reverses the meaning (of what comes after/it's attached to)
Those two meanings obviously overlap somewhat. You can see that they are also different parts of speech (形容詞 vs 副詞）.
不 vs. 否 - ocircle - 2009-10-22
... not sure. One's used in one word, won isn't?
不可能 (impossible)
不利 (disadvantage)
拒否 (to be rejected, to refuse)
否定 (denial)
I can't think of any compound words where 不 is the last kanji, but I'm going to guess that this is because in Chinese, you add the negation in front of the word you want to negate.
(我是美国人，我不是中国人。
我(I)是(am/is)美国(USA)人(person)，我(I)不(not)是(am/is)中国(China)人(Person))
不 vs. 否 - yudantaiteki - 2009-10-22
Unfortunately, 不 vs. 無 vs. 非 vs. 否 is a tough topic. I think it's even tough for native Japanese because I remember seeing in some kanken materials a section where you had to choose the right one for the opposites of various words.
Since this is in the RTK1 section I assume you're having trouble keeping the keywords apart; I don't know if this is particularly important. 不 is never used alone (at least in modern Japanese), and 否 is used alone only rarely (as a strange kanji for いや, or in the expression ...か否か). So you basically just have to learn what words they appear in, and you'll never see a case (AFAIK) where you have 不 + some kanji meaning one thing, and 否 + some kanji meaning a totally different thing.
Quote:I can't think of any compound words where 不 is the last kanji,I don't think there are any, and I agree with your reason why.