eric
/
Chinese-ctcfl.ox.ac.uk


			
				
					
						
						
							123456789101112131415161718192021222324252627282930313233343536373839404142434445464748495051525354555657585960616263646566676869707172737475767778798081828384858687888990919293949596979899100101102103104105106107108109110111112113114115116117118119120121122123124125126127128129130131132133134135136137138139140141
							<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xmlns:epub=
"http://www.idpf.org/2007/ops">
<head>
  <meta name="generator" content=
  "HTML Tidy for HTML5 for Linux version 5.2.0" />
  <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content=
  "text/html; charset=utf-8" />
  <title>Grammar database</title>
  <link rel="stylesheet" href="../Styles/main.css" />
</head>
<body>
  <h1><span class="english">Question and answers</span></h1>
  <h2><span class="english">Question words</span></h2>
  <h3><a name="吗ma" id="吗ma"><span class="hanzi">吗</span>
  <span class="english">ma</span></a></h3>
  <p><span class="english">It is very easy to form Chinese
  questions. One of the question formulas is to place the
  interrogative (question particle)</span> <span class=
  "hanzi">吗</span> <span class="english">ma</span> <span class=
  "english">at the end of a statement. For instance, if</span>
  <span class="hanzi">吗</span> <span class="english">ma</span>
  <span class="english">is placed at the end of</span> <span class=
  "hanzi">你</span> <span class="hanzi">好</span> <span class=
  "english">nĭ hăo</span> <span class="english">hello (lit. you are
  well) it turns the statement into a question:</span></p>
  <div class="exemple">
    <p><audio src="../Audio/Sound/ni%20hao%20ma.wav" controls=
    "controls"></audio><br />
    <span class="hanzi">你好</span> <span class="hanzi">吗</span>
    <span class="english">?</span><br />
    <span class="english">Nĭ hăo <span>ma</span></span>
    <span class="english">?</span><br />
    <span class="english">How are you? (lit. Are you
    well?).</span></p>
  </div>
  <p><span class="english">If</span> <span class="hanzi">吗</span>
  <span class="english">ma</span> <span class="english">is placed
  at end of</span> <span class="hanzi">你是老师</span> <span class=
  "english">you are</span> <span class="english">(a)</span>
  <span class="english">teacher</span> <span class="english">, the
  statement becomes a question:</span></p>
  <div class="exemple">
    <p><audio src="../Audio/ni%20shi%20laoshi%20ma.wav" controls=
    "controls"></audio><br />
    <span class="hanzi">你是</span> <span class="hanzi">老师</span>
    <span class="hanzi">吗</span> <span class=
    "english">?</span><br />
    <span class="english">Nĭ shì lăoshī <span>ma</span></span>
    <span class="english">?</span><br />
    <span class="english">Are you ( a) teacher?</span></p>
  </div>
  <h3><span style=
  "font-size: 20px;">Interrogatives</span><br /></h3>
  <ol>
    <li>
      <p>Using the particle ma at the end of statement (see lesson
      2, p.27)</p>
      <p>你去看朋友吗？ Are you going to see a friend?</p>
      <p>The answer generally repeats whole sentence (for
      politeness) or just the main verb.</p>
      <p>我去看朋友。 I am going to see a friend.</p>
      <p>去 Yes.</p>
      <p>NB If you have ma at the end of a sentence, it would be
      wrong to use any other interrogative word in the same
      sentence as well.</p>
    </li>
    <li>
      <p>Using the particle ne as an interrogative (it has other
      functions too) at the end of a noun phrase (lesson 2 p.10)
      means ‘how about ...?’ or ‘with reference to’.</p>
      <p>你哥哥呢？ What about your brother?</p>
      <p>在图书馆看书的人呢？ What about the readers in the library?</p>
    </li>
    <li>
      <p>Interrogative words such as shei, na, and shenme (lessons
      6 and 7)</p>
      <p>谁來？ Who is coming?</p>
      <p>他是哪国人？ What nationality is he?</p>
      <p>这是什么？ What is this?</p>
      <p>她在哪儿？ Where is she?</p>
      <p>duoshao, and ji (see p.170 note 3)</p>
      <p>你有多少书？ How many books do you have?</p>
      <p>你有几个哥哥？ How many older brothers do you have?</p>
    </li>
    <li>
      <p>Affirmative-negative form of questions (lesson 13,
      p.133)</p>
      <p>你是不是学生？ Are you a student?</p>
      <p>你喝不喝茶？ Do you drink tea?</p>
    </li>
    <li>
      <p>Tag questions: haoma? which turns the statement it follows
      into a suggestion expecting the answer ‘yes’, ‘what about?’
      (lesson 17, p.222)</p>
      <p>你晚上来我这儿，好吗？ What about coming here tonight?</p>
      <p>shima? which turns the statement it follows into a request
      for confirmation, ‘Isn’t it the case that...‘ (see p.251-2
      note 2)</p>
      <p>你晚上来我这儿，是吗？ You‘re coming to my place tonight, arn’t
      you?</p>
    </li>
    <li>
      <p>Questions offering alternatives, ‘either...or...’ (lesson
      19, p.257-8) the words giving the alternative are placed
      after haishi</p>
      <ol>
        <li>
          <p>a. with verbs</p>
          <p>你来还是去？ Are you coming or going?</p>
        </li>
        <li>
          <p>b. with nouns as objects</p>
          <p>你看中文书还是法文书？ Are you reading a Chinese or French
          book?</p>
        </li>
        <li>
          <p>c. with complements</p>
          <p>这是你的还是我的？ Is this yours or mine? It’s mine.</p>
          <p>他是学生还是老师？ Is he a student or a teacher? A student.</p>
        </li>
      </ol>
    </li>
  </ol>
  <p>============================</p>
  <p><span class="english"><a href="MaNe%20Questions.html" style=
  "text-decoration: none">If you have any questions about this
  explanation, please click here</a>.</span></p>
  <p><a title="These must be submitted before your lessons." style=
  "text-decoration: none" target="_blank" href=
  "Lessons%201-13.htm#ma">Assignments</a></p>
  <p>Translate the following sentences into Chinese (2, ma)</p>
  <ol>
    <li>Are you busy?</li>
    <li>Is your older brother well?</li>
    <li>Are you all very well?</li>
    <li>Are you my friend?</li>
  </ol>
</body>
</html>