The three conjunctive pairs all connect clauses of progressive relation.
Bú dàn…, ér qiě…(不但…,而且…) and bù guāng…, hái… (不光…,還…) share the same meaning with the conjunctive pair not only…but also…in English, the latter is used more in colloquial speech. Different from Bú dàn…, ér qiě…(不但…,而且…), the two parts of the sentence connected by bù guāng (不光) and hái(還) can’t share different subjects. When bú dàn (不但) and ér qiě (而且) clauses share the same subject, it appears only once before bú dàn (不但). In the case, the two structures bú dàn…, ér qiě…(不但…,而且…) and bù guāng…, hái… (不光…,還…) can be used interchangeably.
The pattern is: Subject bú dàn (不但)…, ér qiě (而且)…
我不但会弹钢琴, 而且会拉小提琴。
wǒ bù dàn huì dàn gāng qín, ér qiě huì lā xiǎo tí qín.
我不光会弹钢琴, 还会拉小提琴。
wǒ bú guāng huì dàn gāng qín , hái huì lā xiǎo tí qín
I can not only play the piano, but also the violin.
When the two clauses have different subjects, bú dàn (不但) and ér qiě (而且) should occupy the position before the subjects respectively. The pattern is: bú dàn (不但) Subject A…, ér qiě (而且) Subject B…
不但我會彈鋼琴, 而且我弟弟也會彈鋼琴。
bú dàn wǒ huì dàn gāng qín , ér qiě wǒ dì dì yě huì dàn gāng qín.
Not only can I play the piano, but also my brother can play it.
The structure bù jǐn…, shèn zhì…(不僅…,甚至…) translates to not only…but even….Shèn zhì (甚至) has the semantic effect of adding further emphasis to the part after it. Both pieces of information provided by the two parts of the sentence are surprising or out of expectation, with the second one being even more unexpected than the first.
他不僅比同齡的小孩跑得快，甚至可以跑得比一些成年人還快。
tā bù jǐn bǐ tóng líng de xiǎo hái pǎo dé kuài,shèn zhì kě yǐ pǎo dé bǐ yī xiē chéng nián rén hái kuài.
Not only can he run faster than his peers, but he can also even run faster than some adults.
