{"id":12153,"date":"2016-04-27T13:00:23","date_gmt":"2016-04-27T17:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/?p=12153"},"modified":"2016-04-20T02:59:34","modified_gmt":"2016-04-20T06:59:34","slug":"yes-no-questions-in-chinese","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/yes-no-questions-in-chinese\/","title":{"rendered":"Yes No Questions in Chinese"},"content":{"rendered":"

We’ve already talked about asking questions in Chinese<\/a> here on the blog, so go back and review that post if you need more practice with your who\/what\/where\/when\/why type of questions. For this post, I’d like to review\u00a0asking and answering simple yes\/no questions in Chinese. There are basically two ways to ask these types of questions, so let’s take a closer look at both. First of all, though, let’s talk about yes and no in Chinese.<\/p>\n

There is No “Yes” or “No”<\/h2>\n
\"How

How can there be “no tooting” without a word for “no”?!<\/p><\/div>\n

Yes\/no questions in Chinese may seem impossible when you realize that there really aren’t Chinese words that directly translate as “yes” or “no.” Never fear, though – we’ll get to the questions in due time, and they are in fact possible. In Chinese, the words you will use to express the meaning of “yes” or “no” depend entirely on the context\/grammar of the question. You’ll see how this all works through the examples that follow. Now let’s get on with the lesson and learn about the two ways to ask\/answer these types of questions.<\/p>\n

Using the Particle “Ma” (\u5417)<\/h2>\n

\"Screen<\/p>\n

The easiest way to form a question in Chinese – yes\/no questions to be more specific – is to simply attach the particle ma<\/em> (\u5417) to the end of a statement. Here are a few examples of statements and how they become yes\/no questions with the addition of\u00a0\u5417:<\/p>\n

1. You are a student.
\n\u4f60\u662f\u5b66\u751f.
\nn\u01d0 sh\u00ec xu\u00e9 sh\u0113ng<\/h3>\n

Are you a student?
\n\u4f60\u662f\u5b66\u751f\u5417?
\nn\u01d0 sh\u00ec xu\u00e9 sh\u0113ng ma<\/h3>\n

2.\u00a0He has children.
\n\u4ed6\u6709\u5b69\u5b50.
\nt\u0101 y\u01d2u h\u00e1i zi<\/h3>\n

Does he have children?
\n\u4ed6\u6709\u5b69\u5b50\u5417?
\nt\u0101 y\u01d2u h\u00e1i zi ma<\/h3>\n

3.\u00a0They want to go to Beijing.
\n\u4ed6\u4eec\u8981\u53bb\u5317\u4eac.
\nt\u0101 men y\u00e0o q\u00f9 b\u011bi j\u012bng<\/h3>\n

Do they want to go to Beijing?
\n\u4ed6\u4eec\u8981\u53bb\u5317\u4eac\u5417?
\nt\u0101 men y\u00e0o q\u00f9 b\u011bi j\u012bng ma<\/h3>\n

 <\/p>\n

See how easy that is?! Just simply tacking\u00a0\u5417 onto the end of a statement changes it into a yes\/no question.<\/p>\n

Answers<\/h2>\n
\"Of

Of course they want to go to Beijing!<\/p><\/div>\n

Now, how do you go about answering these questions if there’s no Chinese word for “yes” or “no”? To answer affirmatively, you simply repeat the verb:<\/p>\n

1. Yes (am).
\n\u662f
\nsh\u00ec<\/h3>\n

2. Yes (has).
\n\u6709
\ny\u01d2u<\/h3>\n

3. Yes (want)
\n\u8981
\ny\u00e0o<\/h3>\n

In these examples, the verbs\u00a0\u662f (to be),\u00a0\u6709 (to have), and\u00a0\u8981 (to want) are simply repeated to give an affirmative answer. How about negative answers? To give a negative answer, simply add either\u00a0\u4e0d (b\u00f9) or \u6ca1 (m\u00e9i) in front of the verb:<\/p>\n

1. No (am not)
\n\u4e0d\u662f
\nb\u00f9 sh\u00ec<\/h3>\n

2. No (doesn’t have)
\n\u6ca1\u6709
\nm\u00e9i y\u01d2u<\/h3>\n

3. No (don’t want)
\n\u4e0d\u8981
\nb\u00f9 y\u00e0o<\/h3>\n

Knowing whether to use\u00a0\u4e0d or \u6ca1 takes a bit of practice, but for now just know that\u00a0\u4e0d is much more common in forming negative answers.\u00a0Now let’s look at the other way to form yes\/no questions.<\/p>\n

Positive\/Negative<\/h2>\n

\"Screen<\/p>\n

Another way you can ask a yes\/no question in Chinese is to use both the positive and negative forms of the verb. If that seems strange, keep in mind that we do this in English as well – “Do you or don’t you want to go?” Thankfully, forming these kinds of questions is simpler and less awkward in Chinese. Let’s look at the same questions from above but change them to match this format:<\/p>\n

1. Are you (or aren’t you) a student?
\n\u4f60\u662f\u4e0d\u662f\u5b66\u751f?
\nn\u01d0 sh\u00ec b\u00fa sh\u00ec xu\u00e9 sh\u0113ng<\/h3>\n

2. Does he (or doesn’t he) have children?
\n\u4ed6\u6709\u6ca1\u6709\u5b69\u5b50?
\nt\u0101 y\u01d2u m\u00e9i y\u01d2u h\u00e1i zi<\/h3>\n

3. Do they (or don’t they) want to go to Beijing?
\n\u4ed6\u4eec\u8981\u4e0d\u8981\u53bb\u5317\u4eac?
\nt\u0101 men y\u00e0o b\u00fa y\u00e0o q\u00f9 b\u011bi j\u012bng<\/h3>\n

<\/h3>\n

See how easy that is? You can use either way you like to ask yes\/no questions in Chinese, although it’s more common and a bit easier to stick with\u00a0\u5417. If you’re wondering why the tone of \u4e0d changed from 4th to 2nd, go back and review our post about Tricky Tones<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/h2>\n

Practice<\/h2>\n

Now that you’ve learned how easy it is to form yes\/no questions, why not try a bit of practice? Try to translate these English questions into Chinese, using both forms taught in this post:<\/p>\n

1. Can you speak Chinese?<\/h3>\n

2. Does she want to drink coffee?<\/h3>\n

3.\u00a0Do you have a car?<\/h3>\n

4. Is this yours?<\/h3>\n

5. Are they American?<\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

We’ve already talked about asking questions in Chinese here on the blog, so go back and review that post if you need more practice with your who\/what\/where\/when\/why type of questions. For this post, I’d like to review\u00a0asking and answering simple yes\/no questions in Chinese. There are basically two ways to ask these types of questions…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":12159,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[69487,411491,272723,69375,13464,272803,411492,411490],"class_list":["post-12153","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-asking-questions-in-chinese","tag-asking-yesno-questions-in-chinese","tag-beginner-chinese","tag-chinese-grammar","tag-easy-chinese","tag-how-to-ask-questions-in-chinese","tag-how-to-ask-yesno-questions-in-chinese","tag-yesno-questions-in-chinese"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/55"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12153"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12153\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12161,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12153\/revisions\/12161"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}