Word
今天 不用 施肥。jīntiān búyòng shīféi.
Meaning
There is no need to fertilize today.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Lesson
Breakdown of jīntiān búyòng shīféi.
今天jīntiān
today
不用búyòng
need not; do not need to
施肥shīféi
to fertilize
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Questions & Answers about jīntiān búyòng shīféi.
Why is 不用 written búyòng in pinyin instead of bùyòng?
This is because of tone sandhi.
- 不 is normally fourth tone: bù
- But when 不 comes before another fourth-tone syllable, it changes to second tone
Since 用 yòng is fourth tone, 不用 is pronounced:
This is a pronunciation change, not a meaning change.
What does 不用 mean here?
Here, 不用 + verb means there is no need to ... or you don’t need to ...
So 不用施肥 means:
- no need to fertilize
- don’t need to apply fertilizer
In other contexts, 不用 can also mean do not use, but in this sentence it clearly means no need to, because it is followed by the action 施肥.
Why is 今天 at the beginning of the sentence?