{"id":42069,"date":"2017-04-13T03:03:10","date_gmt":"2017-04-13T03:03:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.blog.thatsmandarin.com\/?p=3135"},"modified":"2021-05-05T10:34:51","modified_gmt":"2021-05-05T10:34:51","slug":"httpwww-blog-thatsmandarin-comthats-mandarin-tips-how-to-ask-a-basic-questions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/api.thatsmandarin.com\/blog\/httpwww-blog-thatsmandarin-comthats-mandarin-tips-how-to-ask-a-basic-questions\/","title":{"rendered":"How to ask basic questions in Chinese"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\tMany Chinese learners are told that \u201cma(\u5417)\u201d is used at the end to form a question. However, this statement is not always correct even when creating basic questions.<\/p>\n

\u201cMa(\u5417)\u201d needs to be added at the end of a yes-no question only. For questions like \u201cWhere are you?\u201d, \u201cWhat time is it?\u201d, there is no need to add \u201cma(\u5417)\u201d.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s have a look at some examples:<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
English<\/strong><\/td>\nChinese Pinyin<\/strong><\/td>\nChinese Character<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Do you like Shanghai?<\/td>\nn\u01d0\u00a0 x\u01d0 hu\u0101n\u00a0 sh\u00e0ng h\u01cei\u00a0 ma?<\/td>\n\u4f60\u559c\u6b22\u4e0a\u6d77\u5417\uff1f<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Does he have a Chinese name?<\/td>\nt\u0101\u00a0 y\u01d2u\u00a0 zh\u014dng w\u00e9n\u00a0 m\u00edng z\u00ec\u00a0 ma?<\/td>\n\u4ed6\u6709\u4e2d\u6587\u540d\u5b57\u5417\uff1f<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Where are you?<\/td>\nn\u01d0\u00a0 z\u00e0i\u00a0 n\u01ce l\u01d0?<\/td>\n\u4f60\u5728\u54ea\u91cc\uff1f(\u201cma(\u5417)\u201d is not needed in this case as this is not a yes-no question.)<\/em><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Many Chinese learners are told that \u201cma(\u5417)\u201d is used at the end to form a question. However, this statement is not always correct even when creating basic questions. \u201cMa(\u5417)\u201d needs to be added at the end of a yes-no question only. For questions like \u201cWhere are you?\u201d, \u201cWhat time is it?\u201d, there is no need […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":3469,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":""},"categories":[245,275],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nHow to ask basic questions in Chinese | That's Mandarin<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"How do I ask basic questions in Chinese? It starts with the answer. If the answer is yes\/no the sentence will be worded differently than an open ended one.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How to ask basic questions in Chinese | That's Mandarin\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"How do I ask basic questions in Chinese? It starts with the answer. If the answer is yes\/no the sentence will be worded differently than an open ended one.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.blog.thatsmandarin.com\/quick-chinese-lessons\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"That's Mandarin\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-04-13T03:03:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-05-05T10:34:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/tm.thatsmandarin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Labour-Day-China-2020.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"900\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/api.thatsmandarin.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/api.thatsmandarin.com\/\",\"name\":\"That's Mandarin\",\"description\":\"Learn Chinese in China\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":\"https:\/\/api.thatsmandarin.com\/?s={search_term_string}\",\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.blog.thatsmandarin.com\/quick-chinese-lessons\/#primaryimage\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/tm.thatsmandarin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Labour-Day-China-2020.jpg\",\"width\":900,\"height\":900,\"caption\":\"China's Labour Day 2020 | That's Mandarin\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.blog.thatsmandarin.com\/quick-chinese-lessons\/#webpage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.blog.thatsmandarin.com\/quick-chinese-lessons\/\",\"name\":\"How to ask basic questions in Chinese | That's Mandarin\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/api.thatsmandarin.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.blog.thatsmandarin.com\/quick-chinese-lessons\/#primaryimage\"},\"datePublished\":\"2017-04-13T03:03:10+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-05-05T10:34:51+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/api.thatsmandarin.com\/#\/schema\/person\/66f27faf479664376ac317b5d82ab8f7\"},\"description\":\"How do I ask basic questions in Chinese? It starts with the answer. If the answer is yes\/no the sentence will be worded differently than an open ended one.\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.blog.thatsmandarin.com\/quick-chinese-lessons\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/api.thatsmandarin.com\/#\/schema\/person\/66f27faf479664376ac317b5d82ab8f7\",\"name\":\"Vanya\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/api.thatsmandarin.com\/#personlogo\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b070d3cd8552336680c21542eb5bba78?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Vanya\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/api.thatsmandarin.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42069"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/api.thatsmandarin.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/api.thatsmandarin.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/api.thatsmandarin.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/api.thatsmandarin.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42069"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/api.thatsmandarin.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42069\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10001965,"href":"https:\/\/api.thatsmandarin.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42069\/revisions\/10001965"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/api.thatsmandarin.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/api.thatsmandarin.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/api.thatsmandarin.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42069"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/api.thatsmandarin.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}