Yes-no questions with "ma"

The question particle 吗 (ma) is a very simple way to form questions in Chinese. By placing 吗 on the end of a statement, you convert it into a yes/no question. Surprisingly enough, these are questions that could be answered with yes or no in English. They're also known as polar questions or binary questions.

Basic Usage

Structure

Any statement can be converted into a yes / no question with 吗. You could think of 吗 as being like a question mark you say out loud. So the basic structure is :

statement sentence + 吗 ？

For example:

  • 你 喜欢 咖啡。 (statement) You like coffee.

"You like coffee" can easily be converted into "Do you like coffee?" by adding 吗:

  • 你 喜欢 咖啡 吗？ (question) Do you like coffee?

Examples

More examples of statements and their yes/no question forms:

  • 你 是 白痴。 (statement) You are an idiot.
  • 你 是 白痴 吗？ (question) Are you an idiot?
  • 那 是 老虎。 (statement) That is a tiger.
  • 那 是 老虎 吗？ (question) Is that a tiger?
  • 他 是 老师。 (statement) He is a teacher.
  • 他 是 老师 吗？ (question) Is he a teacher?

It's important to remember that you can not add 吗 to a sentence that's already a question. For example:

  • 你 是 谁 吗？(谁 is a question word) Are you who?
  • 这 是 不 是 书 吗？(是不是 is a question pattern) Is this a book, is?

These would be something like "Do you who are you?" and "Does is this a book?" in English - obviously wrong. Still if you're not careful, you may find yourself throwing a 吗 onto the end of a question that doesn't need it. Many learners make this mistake, so don't worry if it happens every once in a while, just catch it and remember it the next time.

More Advanced Usage

However, this doesn't mean that a sentence can't ever have a question word and 吗. 如果句中有“知道、了解、明白、认识”等动词，那么”吗“可以跟疑问词一起出现。For example:

  • 你 知道 这 是 什么 东西 吗？Do you know what this thing is?

This is OK because the original sentence "你知道这是什么东西" is a statement even though it contains the question word 什么. It's the same in English. "You know what this is" can be converted into the question "Do you know what this is?"

Here are more examples:

  • 你 明白 这 是 什么 意思 吗？Do you understand this?
  • 你 知道 他 是 谁 吗？Do you know who he is?
  • 你 知道 怎么 学 中文吗？Do you know how to study Chinese?
  • 你 明白 老师 在 说 什么吗？Did you understand what the teacher said?
  • 你 认识 这 是 哪 种 文 字吗？Do you know which character that is?

See also

Sources and further reading

Videos

Books

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