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Chinese grammar

不是…而是…

Not … but …

Rejects one option and states the true one.

In stories

  1. 人们跑过去一看，掉在地上的不是火球，而是一只三条腿的大黑鸟。

    后羿射日 · Hou Yi shoots the nine suns HSK 5

  2. 这里的“老”不是说你老，而是表示亲切和尊重。

    中国人的名字有什么讲究？ · How do Chinese names work? HSK 5

  3. 她进门第一件事不是买东西，而是看表。

    十分钟 · The nurse who sleeps for ten minutes HSK 5

  4. 所以对中国人来说，龙不是要打败的敌人，而是能带来好日子的力量。

    中国的龙为什么不喷火？ · What does the Chinese dragon mean? HSK 5

Read 后羿射日

What does 不是…而是… mean in Chinese?

Not … but …. Rejects one option and states the true one.

How common is 不是…而是…?

It comes up in 11 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.

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