"He does not have children."

Translation: 他没有孩子。

[ColeBouton]

Can someone explain to me why 他不有孩子 is not acceptable? My understanding was that 没有 referred to it not having occurred in the past, while 不 could be used for either the present or for something treated as absolute and unchanging.

If he had had children in the past, but they all died, then would 他没有孩子 be wrong, i.e., why isn't it best translated as "he hasn't had children (ever)"?

[Gabrielle145359]

有 is only negated by 没, not 不。 有 is sort of a special verb in this sense.

[ktdeauna]

What's the pinyin for this sentence?

[Keith_APP]

他没有孩子
ta1 mei2 you3 hai2 zi

[MargieXChen]

is there anything wrong with 他沒有小孩

[deactivated user]

Nothing wrong it is still the same meanung

[scsi8]

The tooltip for "children" shows a third character which is absent in the sentence's translation. Why is this?

[Keith_APP]

I can't see the tooltip here, but I guess that Duo suggested 孩子們.

Unlike the pronouns 我們, 你們, we don't deliberately add 們 to nouns in the same way we use plural in English. We only add 們 when referring them as a collective. Sometimes adding it or not does not really make much a difference. Nevertheless this sentence is negative and it does not make sense to refer zero child as a collective. Hence it is only correct to do without 們.

[Gelukservaring]

I might like to give you a lingot from time to time, but this seems not to be possible from the mobile app. Considering your high level you'll probably have plenty of them already.

[j.duo498154]

Wow i am learning more english in duo than chinese: i learned thus, hence, therefore.