The interrogative sentence is used to inquire the condition of some particular things in the communication process. The foreign students who study Mandarin in China may know that there are several kinds of interrogative sentences in Chinese. The interrogative 呢 can be added to refer to question tone of the sentence. The interrogative can express the tone of surprise and puzzlement. Today we will study two kinds of interrogative sentences, namely, the affirmative-negative question and the alternative question.

The affirmative-negative question is the question which is combined with the positive form and the negative form of the predicate in paralleling pattern. The inquirer wants a choice between the positive and negative form. Compared with the yes-no questions, the affirmative-negative question has stronger tone of enquiring to express the eager mood of the inquirer to get the answers. The pattern can be as the following like v/adj不v/adj? or v/adj没v/adj? For example, one can make the sentence like 把孩子送到奶奶那儿去,你同意不同意? The meaning of the sentence is that do you agree to send the children to their grandmother’s. Another example can be like this. 你是不是韩国留学生.The meaning of the sentence is that are you an overseas student who come from Korea?

The students in Chinese learning program may know that there are two patterns of affirmative-negative question which is applied to express the completeness of the acts. The first pattern is that the word 完成 is added after the word 了. For example, one can make the example which reads 你给他打电话了没有? The second pattern is that the end of the sentence can not be added the word 了in the positive and negative pattern.

Then what is alternative question? An alternative question is a question which provides alternative items combined with the conjunction 还是. The inquirer has no intention of the answers of the questions. The form of the alternative question is fixed in the form that A还是B? for example, one can make such example like 你喜欢这本还是那本? The meaning of the sentence is that do you like this book or that one. Another example is like this. 你想坐火车去还是坐飞机去? The meaning of the sentence is like the following. do you want to travel by train or by plane?