---
title: "A-not-A question in Chinese Grammar: … or not?, With Examples"
description: "A-not-A question: … or not?. Saying a verb or adjective, then 不/没 and the same word again (能不能, 喜不喜欢) asks a yes/no question, like adding 吗. 4 real lines from stories, each word explained."
canonical: "https://mandarinthewild.com/chinese-grammar/a-not-a"
author: "Mandarin The Wild"
---

[Chinese grammar](https://mandarinthewild.com/chinese-grammar)

# A-not-A question

… or not?

Saying a verb or adjective, then 不/没 and the same word again (能不能, 喜不喜欢) asks a yes/no question, like adding 吗.

## In stories

你每天都先吃一口，看看**甜不甜**，是不是？”

[老师桌上的苹果 · An apple for the teacher](https://mandarinthewild.com/library/read/an-apple-for-the-teacher-easy-chinese-story#library-word-218-221) HSK 2

星期三，我对周东说：“你**想不想**去我家吃饭？”

[星期三的鱼 · School lunch: Wednesday’s fish](https://mandarinthewild.com/library/read/easy-chinese-story-school-lunch#library-word-220-223) HSK 2

衣服穿得**多不多**？

[星期五（上） · Friday (part 1)](https://mandarinthewild.com/library/read/friday-again-easy-chinese-time-loop-story-1#library-word-389-392) HSK 2

“那我今天吃一点儿，明天再吃一点儿，**好不好**？”

[生日快乐 · Happy birthday in Chinese](https://mandarinthewild.com/library/read/happy-birthday-in-chinese#library-word-213-216) HSK 2

[Read 老师桌上的苹果](https://mandarinthewild.com/library/read/an-apple-for-the-teacher-easy-chinese-story#library-word-218-221)

## More patterns

- [把 + object + verb do something to … (and it ends up changed)](https://mandarinthewild.com/chinese-grammar/ba)
- [verb (+ 了) + duration (for how long) for … (how long … lasts)](https://mandarinthewild.com/chinese-grammar/duration)
- [verb + 得 + complement says how something is done (how well, how much, with what result)](https://mandarinthewild.com/chinese-grammar/v-de-c)
- […的时候 when …](https://mandarinthewild.com/chinese-grammar/de-shihou)
- [verb1 + 着 + verb2 (doing 2 while/by doing 1) do something while …; do it by …](https://mandarinthewild.com/chinese-grammar/v-zhe-v)
- [verb + 了 + verb … briefly; … a little](https://mandarinthewild.com/chinese-grammar/v-le-v)

## What does A-not-A question mean in Chinese?

… or not?. Saying a verb or adjective, then 不/没 and the same word again (能不能, 喜不喜欢) asks a yes/no question, like adding 吗.

## How common is A-not-A question?

It comes up in 48 readings of the 392 stories and articles in our free Library.

## Does it correct my mistakes?

No. It shows which patterns a text uses and what each one does; it doesn’t mark errors. Paste a sentence you wrote to see whether it uses the pattern you meant.

## More free tools

- [Chinese dictionary](https://mandarinthewild.com/chinese-dictionary)
- [Measure words](https://mandarinthewild.com/measure-words)
- [How hard is this text?](https://mandarinthewild.com/text-level)
- [Free Chinese stories](https://mandarinthewild.com/library)

Patterns found by our own parser; lines from our free Library.