About
The Chinese word 不便 (bùbiàn), meaning "inconvenient" or "inconvenience", is formed through a straightforward modifier-head grammatical structure. The first character 不 (bù) is a negation particle meaning "not", which directly modifies the second character 便 (biàn), an adjective meaning "convenient" or "handy". When combined, the negation logically flips the meaning of the root word, creating the compound 不便 to express the state of being "not convenient". This formation is a classic example of how Chinese creates new vocabulary by pairing functional particles with core content words to express opposite or qualified concepts.