未 wèi not yet
How it came to be
象形 · Pictogram
A drawing of the thing it means.
The oldest form is a tree with extra layers of branches.
用法
- A formal, written negator meaning "not yet", equivalent to spoken 还没 but higher register: learners often overuse it in casual speech where 没 sounds far more natural.
- 未来 wèilái "future" is the one everyday word that has fully entered spoken Chinese and lost its formal flavor.
- 从未 cóngwèi and 尚未 shàngwèi both mean "never/not yet" and pair with two-syllable verbs in writing: 尚未确定 shàngwèi quèdìng, "not yet determined".
- 未必 wèibì means "not necessarily" and softens a claim: 这未必是好事 zhè wèibì shì hǎoshì, "this isn't necessarily a good thing".