不成
bù chéng · HSK 6
unable to
🚫 不成 = not + succeed; 'no-go' or 'can that be?'
不 (bù, not) + 成 (chéng, become/succeed) literally 'not become' — won't work, can't do. At a sentence end, it flips into a rhetorical 'can that really be?' tag, like 难道不成.
不 — single pictograph; bird flying upward
Originally a pictograph in oracle bone script, traditionally interpreted as a bird flying up toward the sky and unable to come down, suggesting negation or refusal. Over time it became the standard negation word in Chinese, used before verbs and adjectives to mean 'not'.
成 — 戊 (halberd/weapon) + 丁 (nail/man)
Originally a pictograph of a halberd or axe-like weapon, suggesting the act of completing a task by force. Over time it shifted from 'to subdue' to the broader meaning 'to accomplish' or 'to become'. The 丁 element inside also hints at the chéng sound.