Sentence pattern · Band 1
吗: turn any statement into a yes or no question
……吗？
Take any statement, keep every word exactly where it is, and hang 吗 on the end: your voice rises and it becomes a yes or no question. English rebuilds the whole question with do; Mandarin spends one syllable and changes nothing else. Cheapest grammar upgrade in the language, and it works on almost any line you can say.
Hear it in a sentence
Mistakes people make
English borrows the helper do to build questions; Mandarin adds nothing but 吗 at the end.
是不是 already asks the question, so 吗 has nothing left to do. One asking device per sentence.
Words in this pattern
Quick answers
What does 吗字问句 mean?
Take any statement, keep every word exactly where it is, and hang 吗 on the end: your voice rises and it becomes a yes or no question. English rebuilds the whole question with do; Mandarin spends one syllable and changes nothing else. Cheapest grammar upgrade in the language, and it works on almost any line you can say.
How do you build it?
……吗？
What is the most common mistake?
你做喜欢茶吗？ → 你喜欢茶吗？
English borrows the helper do to build questions; Mandarin adds nothing but 吗 at the end.
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