<p>很不 reinforces the (negated) adjective. 不很 indicates that the subject is "not really" as the adjectives says.</p>

<ul>
<li>很不聪明 - very unintelligent. </li>
<li>不很聪明 - not too intelligent, not really intelligent.</li>
</ul>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-04-12T10:12:55.837Z
2020-04-12T10:12:55.837Z
musialmi
<p>I want to add another thing is that: we rarely say 不很 in Chinese. Usually, we say 不是很.</p>

<p>她不是很聪明，但很努力。 -> She is not very smart but she works hard.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-04-13T02:48:16.933Z
Do you have any internet sources that I can investigate more?
Jenny
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-04-12T20:22:31.087Z
2020-04-12T20:22:31.087Z
Fryan Fan
<p>I have two sentences. <strong>Does 不 preceding or following 很 affect the sentence meaning?</strong></p>

<blockquote>
<pre><code>她不很聪明，但很努力。
她很不聪明，但很努力。
</code></pre>
</blockquote>

<meaning>
Do '不很 + adj' and '很不 + adj' have the same meaning?
# Do '不很 + adj' and '很不 + adj' have the same meaning?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2020-04-12)

I have two sentences. Does 不 preceding or following 很 affect the sentence meaning?

她不很聪明，但很努力。
她很不聪明，但很努力。

**Tags:** meaning

---

## 2 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2020-04-12. Score: 2 | Accepted answer

很不 reinforces the (negated) adjective. 不很 indicates that the subject is "not really" as the adjectives says.

* 很不聪明 - very unintelligent.
* 不很聪明 - not too intelligent, not really intelligent.


---

### Answer by username_2 on 2020-04-12. Score: 2

I want to add another thing is that: we rarely say 不很 in Chinese. Usually, we say 不是很.

她不是很聪明，但很努力。 -> She is not very smart but she works hard.

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: Do you have any internet sources that I can investigate more?  

---

