---
title: "不但不/没…，反而… in Chinese Grammar: Far from …, on the contrary …, With Examples"
description: "不但不/没…，反而…: far from …, on the contrary …. 不但不 A，反而 B: not only not A, but the opposite, B. 2 real lines from stories, each word explained."
canonical: "https://mandarinthewild.com/chinese-grammar/budan-bu-faner"
author: "Mandarin The Wild"
---

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

# 不但不/没…，反而…

Far from …, on the contrary …

不但不 A，反而 B: not only not A, but the opposite, B.

## In stories

老师听了，**不但没有生气，反而愉快地笑了**：“说我像一条没有家的狗？

[孔子是谁？ · Who was Confucius?](https://mandarinthewild.com/library/read/who-was-confucius#library-word-80-94) HSK 4

悟空**不但不救火，反而吹了一口气**，起了一阵大风，把火都吹向了和尚们住的地方。

[火烧观音院 · Fire at Guanyin Temple](https://mandarinthewild.com/library/read/fire-at-guanyin-temple-journey-to-the-west-intermediate-chinese-13#library-word-762-775) HSK 5

[Read 孔子是谁？](https://mandarinthewild.com/library/read/who-was-confucius#library-word-80-94)

## More patterns

- [verb + 不/得 + result (potential) cannot / can (manage to) …](https://mandarinthewild.com/chinese-grammar/v-bu-c)
- [再也 + 不/没 never again; not any more](https://mandarinthewild.com/chinese-grammar/zaiye-bu)
- [谁 + 也/都 + (V不C) no one / nothing: …](https://mandarinthewild.com/chinese-grammar/shei-ye-neg-v)
- [verb + 不了/得了 cannot …; can …](https://mandarinthewild.com/chinese-grammar/v-bu-liao)
- [一 + measure word (+ noun) + 也/都 + 不/没 not a single …](https://mandarinthewild.com/chinese-grammar/yi-cl-ye-bu)
- [一点(儿) + 也/都 + 不/没 not … at all](https://mandarinthewild.com/chinese-grammar/yidian-ye-neg)

## What does 不但不/没…，反而… mean in Chinese?

Far from …, on the contrary …. 不但不 A，反而 B: not only not A, but the opposite, B.

## How common is 不但不/没…，反而…?

It comes up in 2 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.