The interrogative sentence:

 

An interrogative sentence can be formed by

1. putting the modal particle “吗” at the end of a declarative sentence.

 

他是张宁。He is Zhāng Níng.

他是张宁吗? Is he Zhāng Níng?

 

2. using the affirmative-negative structure. The latter one siply places the affirmative and negative forms of the predicate after one another.

他是张宁。He is Zhāng Níng

他是不是张宁? Is he Zhāng Níng?

 

The meaning is the same, whichever way you choose.

 



yào


+


不要
búyào


=


要吗?
yàoma



hăo


+


不好
bùhăo


=


好吗?
hăoma



guì


+


不贵
búguì


=


贵吗?
guìma



kàn


+


不看
búkàn


=


看吗?
kànma



yŏu


+


没有
méiyŏu


=


有吗?
yŏuma

 

And so on. Note that “吗” is always at the end of the sentence, so simply replacing 要不要 with 要吗 in a sentence might not work: “你要吗去?” is wrong. The affirmative-negative structure can also not be used together with „吗”, so “你要不要去吗” is also wrong.

 

 

 

– 请等一等:

 

等一等 (dĕng yì dĕng) could best be translated as “wait a moment”. This structure is often seen, and not only used with “等”, but almost any verb. Eg: 看一看 (kàn yí kàn) means “take a look”, or 玩一玩 (wán yì wán) means “have some fun”.

 

“一下” (yíxià) can also be used after the verb, eg: 等一下 (dĕng yíxià), 看一下 (kàn yíxià), and the meaning is the same. Whatever you say, pay attention to the tones of “一”.

 

 

– The use of (ér):

 

儿 (ér) is often placed at he end of a word in the Beijing subdialect, and most of the times has no meaning at all, it is just something for Beijingers to be proud of for implementing it in pŭtōnghuà. It is not necessarily indicated in writing, but seldom do people in Beijing say 一下 (yíxià) without an “ér” in the end, making it sound something like “yíxiàr”. It is not pronounced as a separate syllable, but rather as an “r” added to the syllable in front of “ér”. Also “有事吗?” is often rather pronounced “yŏu shìr ma”. Note that it can be indicated in writing, so “有事儿吗” is correct. Also note that you do not have to use this “ér”, in fact, it might be harder for people to understand you outside Beijing if you do use it. But then on the other hand, it sounds good, and everyone will go “Wow! You talk like a real Beijinger”.

Practice 儿:

 

一会儿
yíhuìr

有点儿
yŏudiănr

饭馆儿
fànguănr

前边儿
qiánbiānr

一份儿
yífènr

冰棍儿
bīnggùnr

瓜子儿
guāzĭr

没事儿
méishìr

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