Mandarin Chinese Question Formats

Learning how to ask questions in a new language is as important as learning basic survival sentences--maybe more important.

By that I mean, what good is learning, "One beer, please, bartender," if you can't ask before that, "Excuse me, where can I get a beer?"

Using the particle (ma) is not the only way to create a question. Two other common formats involve interrogatives (who, what, where, why, when, and how) and the "verb-not-verb" construction.

Interrogatives

Following are examples of some common interrogatives.

The "Verb-not-Verb" Construction

In this format, a verb is followed by (bù) or (méi)--which mean no, not, or don't--and then the verb is repeated. These examples will show you how the construction works.

Here's come those tone shifts again. Normally, (bù) is pronounced in the fourth tone, but before another instance of the fourth tone, it shifts to the second. In the "Do you want to watch a movie?" example above, it would be pronounced like "yào bú yào."

Be aware too that in some cases, (yŏu) is better translated as "are." Other times, "are" will be better translated as (shì).

I'll let your Chinese teachers explain the difference to you. I don't want to do all their work for them.

G'day, Eh?

When is added as a tag to the end of an already completed sentence, it functions much as the English "right?" or "isn't it?" - and perhaps the Canadian "eh?" Seriously. I'm not joking.... All right, all right, maybe it's just a little joke.

  can be tagged to a sentence which contains any other verb in the main clause.