Talk:不是

Tones

Isn't the fourth tone of the first syllable changed to second tone in this context, to avoid two fourth tones in a row? 24.93.190.134 07:36, 3 October 2007 (UTC)

Yes, you are correct. According to tone sandhi rules for Standard Mandarin, the character 不 (normally bù - fourth tone) is changed to second tone (bú) when followed by another fourth tone syllable. However, the actual Pinyin spelling is another matter. Some dictionaries spell it with the converted tones (búshì in this case, ex. HSK汉语水平考试词典, →ISBN), while others use the root tones (bùshì, ex. 现代汉语词典, →ISBN). Although Wiktionary's WT:AC does not currently have a guideline for this, I decided to always use the root tone for syllables when spelling words in Pinyin (bùshì), since this is more consistent with how tone sandhi is handled in other situations in Mandarin. For example, 可以 is kěyǐ, even though the first syllable changes to second tone (technically: kéyǐ). I hope this explanation clarifies things. -- A-cai 11:15, 3 October 2007 (UTC)

Your comment has prompted me to make an addition to WT:AC called WT:AC#Tone sandhi. -- A-cai 11:27, 3 October 2007 (UTC)

Noun sense

Dictionaries give a noun sense of "fault, blame"... I can't find any example though, the verb sense is far too common. Kappa 00:01, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

It's common enough. It means 過錯/過失 in that context. I've made some changes to the original entry. ---> Tooironic (talk) 07:42, 27 May 2015 (UTC)