Lesson 4: Yes? No?

Compare to English, I think the structure of question sentence in Chinese is much easier. The yes-or-no question is pretty similar as a statement sentence. The only difference is the question mark character ‘吗’(ma). Put ‘吗’(ma) at the end of a statement sentence and now you are asking question.

Let’s take sentences we learnt as an example:

Statement: 我(wǒ)是(shì)Vera。= I’m Vera.

Question: 我(wǒ)是(shì)Vera吗(ma)？= Am I Vera?

Statement: 我(wǒ)爱(ài)你(nǐ)。= I love you.

Question: 我(wǒ)爱(ài)你(nǐ)吗？= Do I love you? (Actually ‘你(nǐ)爱(ài)我(wǒ)吗(ma)？’ is more useful. It is said in a relationship, it’s a most frequent asked question by a girl.)

There is no order changing in a yes-or-no question in Chinese. When you know a statement sentence, you can always changed it to a question. Notices: you still need a question mark ‘?’, although you already have ‘吗(ma)’.

The answer for such a question is easy, too. In most cases:

yes=是(shì)

no=不(bù)

A：你(nǐ)爱(ài)我(wǒ)吗(ma)？

B：是(shì)。

A：你(nǐ)是(shì)Vera吗(ma)？

B：不(bù)。

I know you learnt something now. But all this you can find on textbook. Why do you read this? Because I have something that not on textbook. Every time, when I taught this in class, I was confused. I noticed though ‘是(shì)’ and ‘不(bù)’ are standard answers to a yes-or-no question, not a lot of people will really use that. So let’s see how a real Chinese will answer the question:

A：你(nǐ)是(shì)Vera吗(ma)？

B：是(shì)的(de)。

I guess modern Chinese language prefers a two syllables, so a lot of people will use ‘是的’(shìde) instead of ‘是(shì)’.

A：你(nǐ)喜(xǐ)欢(huan)狗(gǒu)吗(ma)？

B：嗯(èn)。

This one is always used with a nod. It’s also often used in a call. I will say ‘嗯’(èn), ‘嗯’(èn), ‘嗯’(èn) during a call just like you will say  ‘yes’, ‘yes’, ‘yes’.

A：你(nǐ)喜欢(xǐhuan)咖啡(kāfēi)吗(ma)？

B：喜欢(xǐhuan)。/不(bù)喜(xǐ)欢(huan)

Repeat the verb is another common way to express ‘yes’. For negative, use ‘不’+ verb.