When one wants to say I'm good, you say wo3 hen3 hao3, with the hen just functioning to make the sentence sound more pleasant. What do you say when you want to say I'm not good? Would you say wo3 bu4 hao3? or... do you still use the non-functing hen (wo3 bu4 hen3 hao3 ??) And do I remember seeing somewhere that you don't use hen when negating the adjective?

When giving a negative answer, you can either say wo3 bu4 hao3, meaning I am not good at all, or say wo3 bu4 hen3 hao3. meaning I am not really good. They are both right. People will have to choose based on the meaning they want to convey... if they wanna say "very bad", better use wo3 bu4 hao3. the situation of wo3 bu4 hen3 hao3 is stil better than wo3 bu4 hao3. Do you know what I mean? It is pretty much like the difference of "I am in a bad condition" and "I am not really in a good condition". Regards