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Lesson 10 – Elementary – Four Types of Chinese Interrogation

For every Chinese language learner, they will learn the interrogation at the very beginning of the process oflearning Mandarin Chinese. In total, there are four types of interrogation in Chinese language students should learn.

The first one is the Yes or No question with “吗?”, which is formed by adding the inquisitive modal particle “吗” to the end of the indicative sentence. Therefore, it is easy for learners just start to study Chinese to recognize.

This kind of interrogation is very frequently used in our daily life and the answers are quite simple, jus yes or no. The following dialogue is designed to help students who learn Chinese in China to understand.
A:你是中国人吗?(nǐ shì zhōnɡ ɡuó rén mɑ ?)
B:是。(shì 。)
A:你是老师吗?(nǐ shì lǎo shī mɑ ?)
B:不是。我是学生。(bú shì 。 wǒ shì xué shenɡ 。)
A:他们都是留学生吗?(tā men dōu shì liú xué shenɡ mɑ ?)
B:他们都是留学生。(tā men dōu shì liú xué shenɡ 。)

Theoretically speaking, we can just answer with “是” or “不是”. But for the purpose to explain more, you can add some explanation or to express with the complete sentence. This will be great help to understand when they learn Mandarin.

Another type of interrogation is the questions with interrogative pronouns like “谁”, “什么”, “哪(哪儿、哪里)”, “怎么”, “怎么样”, “几” and “多少”. Usually speaking, this kind of interrogation with these words is used to ask for some certain information. If students who study in China know this, they can use them correctly. The following are some helpful examples:
A:你住哪儿?(nǐ zhù nǎ ér ?)
B:我住语言大学十楼。(wǒ zhù yǔ yán dà xué shí lóu 。)
A:你们的老师是谁?(nǐ men de lǎo shī shì shuí ? )
B:我们的老师是林老师。(wǒ men de lǎo shī shì lín lǎo shī 。)
A:你觉得这个大学怎么样?(nǐ jué dé zhè ɡe dà xué zěn me yànɡ ?)
B:我觉得这个大学很好。(wǒ jué dé zhè ɡe dà xué hěn hǎo 。)

It is easy to understand, but one point often stressed by teachers in Chinese school in China is that only the first type of interrogation can have “吗?”. For example, we can’t say “你是哪国人吗?”.

The third type of interrogation often emphasized when you go to language school to learn Mandarin in China is the affirmative-negative question. In this question, the affirmative and negative forms of the main element of the predicate are paralleled.

To help students see clear the so called “paralleled”, the following examples are illustrated as a help when you learn Chinese language in China:
A:他是不是老师? (tā shì bu shì lǎo shī ?)
B:是。/不是。(shì 。 / bú shì 。)
A:你,忙不忙?(nǐ , mánɡ bu mánɡ ?)
B:很忙。/不忙。(hěn mánɡ 。 / bù mánɡ 。)

Last but not least, the alternative questions are often used when learners learn to speak Chinese. The form of this type of interrogation is “……还是……”. They often used to question if there are two more possibilities for an answer.

Let me illustrate some example to explain how to learn Mandarin when you meet this kind of interrogation.
A:你的车是新的还是旧的?(nǐ de chē shì xīn de hái shì jiù de ? )
B:我的车是新的。(wǒ de chē shì xīn de 。)
A:你喝点儿什么,茶还是咖啡?(nǐ hē dián ér shén me , chá hái shì kā fēi ?)
B:喝点儿茶吧。(hē dián ér chá bɑ 。)
We can see in the first example, the answer may possibly be “新的” or “旧的”. So for questions of such type, we should use the alternative questions.

In all, four types of questioning ways are learned in the parts above. If students can master them all, there will be no problem to ask questions in their daily conversation

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