Learn Hardcore Chinese: tā jīntiān méi dài yǎnjìng, suǒyǐ kàn bù qīngchu dìtú. - She isn’t wearing her glasses today, so she can’t see the map clearly.

没 / 没有 + verb = did not do / have not done (negates a completed action or state)
不 + verb = do not / will not / generally don’t (habit, preference, plan, or general truth)

So:

她今天没戴眼镜 = She didn’t wear / isn’t wearing glasses today. (a specific situation)
她平时不戴眼镜 = She doesn’t usually wear glasses. (habit)

Using 不戴 here would sound more like a general choice or habit, not a one‑time situation today.

What exactly does 戴 (dài) mean, and how is it different from 穿 (chuān) and 带 (dài)?

All three can relate to things you put on or carry, but they are used with different kinds of items:

戴 (dài) = to wear (accessories on the head, face, hands, etc.)
- 戴眼镜 – wear glasses
- 戴帽子 – wear a hat
- 戴手表 – wear a watch
穿 (chuān) = to wear (clothes/shoes on the body or feet)
- 穿衣服 – wear clothes
- 穿裤子 – wear pants
- 穿鞋 – wear shoes
带 (dài) = to bring / take (with you), to carry
- 带书 – bring a book
- 带雨伞 – bring an umbrella
- 带孩子 – take care of / bring children along

So with 眼镜, you must use 戴, not 穿 or 带, when you mean “wear”.

Could we say 她今天没有戴眼镜 instead of 她今天没戴眼镜? Is there a difference?

Yes, 她今天没有戴眼镜 is also correct.

Difference in feel:

没戴 – slightly shorter, very common in speech.
没有戴 – a bit fuller/clearer, can sound slightly more emphatic or careful, and is very common in both speech and writing.

In most everyday contexts here, 没戴 and 没有戴 feel almost the same; both mean “didn’t wear / is not wearing (today).”

Why is there no 了 (le) after 戴 in 没戴眼镜?

There are two key points:

没 / 没有 already indicates that the action did not happen or is not realized; this often replaces the need for 了.
了 is usually used to mark completed actions or a change of state. But here we are saying the action did not occur, so completion is not being asserted.

So:

Positive completed action:
- 她今天戴了眼镜。 – She (did) wear glasses today.
Negative:
- 她今天没戴眼镜。 – She didn’t wear glasses today.
  (You normally do not add 了 after 没戴 in this basic pattern.)

There are more complex patterns where 了 can appear elsewhere, but for this simple sentence, 没戴 (without 了) is the natural form.

Why can the subject 她 (tā) be omitted in the second clause 所以看不清楚地图?

Chinese often omits the subject in the second clause if it is the same as in the first clause and the meaning is clear from context.

Full form would be:

她今天没戴眼镜，所以她看不清楚地图。

But since both clauses are about 她, repeating 她 is unnecessary. So you can shorten it to:

她今天没戴眼镜，所以看不清楚地图。

This is very natural in Chinese and is a common way to avoid repetition.

What is the grammar of 看不清楚 (kàn bù qīngchu)? Why is 不 in the middle?

看不清楚 is a potential complement structure:

看 – verb (to look / see)
清楚 – result (clear(ly))
不 – inserted between verb and result to show “cannot” achieve that result

Pattern:

V + 得 + result = can achieve the result
- 看得清楚 – can see clearly
V + 不 + result = cannot achieve the result
- 看不清楚 – cannot see clearly

So 看不清楚 literally is “look‑not‑clear,” meaning “(under these conditions) she can’t see clearly.”

What is the difference between 看不清楚, 看不见, and 看不懂?

They all use the same potential-complement pattern (V + 不 + result), but the result words differ:

看不清楚 – cannot see clearly
- Vision problem or conditions (no glasses, too far, too dark, etc.).
- You see something, but it’s blurry / not sharp.
看不见 – cannot see (at all)
- It’s invisible, blocked, too dark, or too far; or you are blind.
- There is no visual perception of the thing.
看不懂 – cannot understand (by reading/seeing)
- You can physically see it, but you do not understand it.
- E.g. 看不懂中文 – cannot understand written Chinese.

In this sentence, because she has no glasses, the issue is clarity (not total invisibility and not understanding), so 看不清楚 is the right choice.

Why do we use 不 in 看不清楚 instead of 没看清楚?

看不清楚 and 没看清楚 are related but not identical:

看不清楚 (V + 不 + result)
- Focus: inability to achieve the result under the current conditions.
- Implies: even if you try, you cannot see clearly (because you have no glasses, it’s too far, etc.).
没看清楚 (没 + V + result)
- Focus: the action did not end up with that result (in this instance).
- Implies: on that occasion, you didn’t manage to see clearly; maybe you didn’t look long enough, looked too quickly, or somehow failed.

In this sentence, we’re expressing a general inability caused by not wearing glasses, so 看不清楚 (cannot see clearly under these conditions) is more natural than 没看清楚 (didn’t see clearly that time).

Could we say 所以她看地图看得不清楚 instead? Is that correct, and how does it feel different?

Yes, 所以她看地图看得不清楚 is grammatically correct.

Here the pattern is:

看地图 – verb + object
看得不清楚 – verb + 得
- degree/result complement (not clearly)

So the whole clause means “so she looks at the map, and (she) looks not clearly.”

Nuance:

看不清楚地图 – compact, very common; emphasizes the result directly on the object.
看地图看得不清楚 – slightly more explicit and descriptive; it foregrounds the action of looking at the map, then comments on how clearly she does it.

Both are fine; the original version is shorter and more typical in speech.

Why is the word order 看不清楚地图 and not 看地图看不清楚 or 不清楚看地图?

In Chinese, with result/degree complements, the usual core order is:

Verb + (得 / 不) + result/degree + object
e.g. 看不清楚地图

Common possibilities:

看不清楚地图 – very natural and common.
地图看不清楚 – also possible; puts 地图 in front for emphasis or different rhythm.

Less natural/incorrect:

看地图看不清楚 – only works if it’s in the full pattern 看地图看得不清楚. You need 得 with this double‑verb structure; without 得, this version is odd as a stand‑alone.
不清楚看地图 – wrong order; 不清楚 is describing the result/degree of 看, so it must follow the verb (and usually follow 得 or be in the V+不+result structure).

So 看不清楚地图 fits the standard pattern.

Does 眼镜 (yǎnjìng) mean “glasses” as in one pair, or something else? How do you say “a pair of glasses” in Chinese?

眼镜 by itself refers to glasses as an item, similar to English glasses (which is grammatically plural but refers to one item).

To count it, you need a measure word:

一副眼镜 – a pair of glasses
两副眼镜 – two pairs of glasses

So:

她今天没戴眼镜。 – She didn’t wear (her) glasses today.
(Implicitly: her usual one pair.)

If you want to be explicit:

她今天没戴那副眼镜。 – She didn’t wear that pair of glasses today.

Where should 今天 (jīntiān) go in the sentence? Could we put it somewhere else?

In Chinese, time expressions usually come after the subject and before the verb:

她今天没戴眼镜。 – Subject 她
- time 今天
  - verb phrase 没戴眼镜

Acceptable alternatives:

今天她没戴眼镜。 – Puts 今天 at the very beginning for emphasis on “today.”
In the full sentence:
今天她没戴眼镜，所以看不清楚地图。 – also fine.

Unnatural or wrong positions:

她没今天戴眼镜。 – incorrect; time word should not sit between negation and verb like this.
她没戴今天眼镜。 – incorrect; 今天 is not attached to 眼镜.

So the safe pattern to remember is:

(Topic / Subject) + (Time) + (Place) + Verb + Object
and 她今天没戴眼镜 follows this pattern.

How is 所以 (suǒyǐ) used here? Do we always need it to say “so / therefore”?

所以 links a reason clause with a result clause:

Reason: 她今天没戴眼镜，
Result: 所以看不清楚地图。

Literal structure:
[Reason]，所以 [Result]. – Because [reason], so [result].

Notes:

Often the reason is introduced by 因为 (yīnwèi), and the result by 所以:
- 因为她今天没戴眼镜，所以看不清楚地图。
In casual speech and writing, it’s very common to:
- Use only 所以 and omit 因为, as in the given sentence.
- Or use only 因为 and omit 所以, depending on style.

You do not always have to use 所以 to express “so,” but it is a very common and clear way to signal a result clause. Here it makes the cause‑and‑effect relationship explicit.

How do you actually pronounce 看不清楚 (kàn bù qīngchu) together? Does 不 (bù) change tone here?

The tones are:

看 (kàn) – 4th tone
不 (bù) – 4th tone
清 (qīng) – 1st tone
楚 (chu) – neutral tone here (often written as qīngchu)

Tone‑change rule for 不:

不 changes to bú (2nd tone) only before a 4th‑tone syllable.
- e.g. bú shì (不是), bú yào (不要)

In 不清楚, the next syllable 清 (qīng) is 1st tone, not 4th, so 不 keeps its original 4th tone:

kàn bù qīngchu – 4‑4‑1‑(neutral)

So you pronounce it with bù, not bú, in this sentence.