Many Chinese learners are told that “ma(吗)” is used at the end to form a question. However, this statement is not always correct even when creating basic questions.
“Ma(吗)” needs to be added at the end of a yes-no question only. For questions like “Where are you?”, “What time is it?”, there is no need to add “ma(吗)”.
Let’s have a look at some examples:
| English | Chinese Pinyin | Chinese Character |
| Do you like Shanghai? | nǐ xǐ huān shàng hǎi ma? | 你喜欢上海吗？ |
| Does he have a Chinese name? | tā yǒu zhōng wén míng zì ma? | 他有中文名字吗？ |
| Where are you? | nǐ zài nǎ lǐ? | 你在哪里？(“ma(吗)” is not needed in this case as this is not a yes-no question.) |
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