非但…還…grammar point · tier 2 · counter-expectation 非但…還… (not only … but even/still)
Pushes past expectation: not only does A hold, B carries the same direction further, often downhill — the slide that was supposed to stop instead keeps going.
字源 FORM what the parts do
非但 sharpens 不但: 但 carries its borrowed sense, the one thing left when all else is peeled away, and 非 — the two wings turned back to back — sets it against the grain, so the pair write 'not only this'. 還 heads the second clause, a road (辶) still going, carrying the line further the same direction instead of letting it rest.
故事 STORY a scene to remember it by
A slope tips one way; where the eye waits for it to level off, the ground drops on, 還 pushing it further down the same line. No corner is turned; the second half rides past the first.
字源記憶法
框 · Frame
非但 [clause A, often a negation], 還 [clause B, further the same way]
觸 · Trigger
What you expected to ease off instead keeps going the same way, past where it should have stopped.
序 · The move
1Open with 非但 on the first fact, usually a negation or a fall-short of what was expected.Is a stronger second step coming that goes the same way? If the second half would turn against the first, you want 雖然…但是…, not this.
2Head the second clause with 還 and push the line further in the same direction.Does B carry A's direction past expectation, or only sit beside it? If it merely adds a neutral second item, plain 不但…還/也… is enough.
3Keep one subject across both halves.Same subject throughout? 非但 leads the first clause; 還 leads the predicate of the second, not a new subject.
例 · Examples
1新產品的銷售量非但not only (emphatic)沒有增加did not increase，還even; on top of that, further減少了decreased百分之三十thirty percent。
Sales of the new product not only failed to rise, they even fell by thirty percent.
界 · Boundary
不但…還/也…
非但…還… is 不但 sharpened: more formal, and it leans on counter-expectation — the first half is often a negation and the second slides further the same way (often worse). 不但…還/也… is the neutral upward stack, no downhill lean.
非但…還… keeps one direction and rides past it (A holds, B goes further the same way). 雖然…但是… concedes then reverses (A holds, B works against it). One continues; the other turns.
連…都… names a single extreme case and sweeps the rest in by it. 非但…還… runs two clauses, the second carrying the first's line further along, not pointing at one hardest case.
新產品非但沒有增加，但是減少了。 (turning against with 但是 after 非但) → 新產品非但沒有增加，還減少了。 (second half carries the same direction, headed by 還)
他非但遲到了。 (非但 opened with nothing carried on past it) → 他非但遲到了，還忘了帶資料。 (a second clause pushes the line further)
非但他沒來，還我也沒來。 (a new subject after 還) → 他非但沒來，還沒打電話。 (one subject; 還 leads the predicate)
English 'not only … but also' invites 'but', tempting 但是 in the second half; here it takes 還, and 但是 would flip the slide into a reversal. English also has no built-in downhill lean — 非但 often signals the second half is worse, which the neutral 'not only' does not carry.