{"id":10051,"date":"2019-11-18T15:27:36","date_gmt":"2019-11-18T15:27:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chinesemoment.com\/chinese-culture\/modal-particles\/"},"modified":"2019-11-18T15:27:36","modified_gmt":"2019-11-18T15:27:36","slug":"modal-particles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chinesemoment.com\/fr\/modal-particles\/","title":{"rendered":"Modal Particles"},"content":{"rendered":"
In linguistics, modal particles are always uninflected words, and are a type of grammatical particle. Mandarin Chinese depends highly on the use of modal particles. Changing the pitch of the sentence or phrase would make the meaning of the sentence different.<\/p>\n

\u554a(\u0101) is placed at the end of a sentence to express admiration or affirmation, for example:<\/p>\n

du\u014d h\u01ceo de dì f\u0251n\u0261 \u0101
\u591a \u597d \u7684 \u5730 \u65b9 \u554a\uff01
What a place!<\/p>\n

n\u01d0 k\u011b yào xi\u01ceo x\u012bn \u0101
\u4f60 \u53ef \u8981 \u5c0f \u5fc3 \u554a\uff01
Do be careful!<\/p>\n

Or to indicate a question, for example:<\/p>\n

n\u01d0 men n\u01ce ti\u0101n qù l\u01da xín\u0261 \u0101
\u4f60 \u4eec \u54ea \u5929 \u53bb \u65c5 \u884c \u554a\uff1f
When are you going to start on your journey?<\/p>\n

\u554a can also be placed in the sentence to pause for a second and draw attention to the following sentences, for example:<\/p>\n

n\u01d0 \u0101 l\u01ceo zhè yàn\u0261 xià qu k\u011b bù xín\u0261
\u4f60 \u554a \uff0c\u8001 \u8fd9 \u6837 \u4e0b \u53bb\u53ef \u4e0d \u884c\uff01
Look! You can’t go on like this.<\/p>\n

Or placed after a repetitive verb to indicate that it is a very long process:<\/p>\n

t\u0101 men z\u01d2u \u0101 z\u01d2u \u0101 yì zhí z\u01d2u dào hé bi\u0101n
\u4ed6 \u4eec \u8d70 \u554a\uff0c\u8d70 \u554a\uff0c\u4e00 \u76f4\u8d70 \u5230 \u6cb3 \u8fb9\u3002
They went on and on till they came to a river.<\/p>\n

\u5440(y\u0251): ah; oh<\/p>\n

y\u0251 xià xu\u011b le
\u5440\uff0c\u4e0b \u96ea \u4e86\uff01
Oh, it’s snowing!<\/p>\n

shuí y\u0251
\u8c01 \u5440\uff1f
Who is it?<\/p>\n

zh\u0113n sh\u0101n\u0261 x\u012bn y\u0251
\u771f \u4f24 \u5fc3 \u5440\uff01
Woe is me!<\/p>\n

ò
\u54e6: Oh; ah; I see<\/p>\n

ò w\u01d2 d\u01d2n\u0261 le
\u54e6\uff0c\u6211 \u61c2 \u4e86\u3002
Oh! I see. Oh! Now I understand.<\/p>\n

ó zh\u0113n de
\u54e6\uff1f\u771f \u7684\uff1f
Oh, you do?<\/p>\n

m\u0251
\u5417: placed at the end of a sentence to indicate a question<\/p>\n

shì m\u0251
\u662f \u5417\uff1f
That so?<\/p>\n

ké y\u01d0 m\u0251
\u53ef \u4ee5 \u5417\uff1f
Would you?<\/p>\n

tán\u0261 cù yú h\u01ceo ch\u012b m\u0251
\u7cd6 \u918b \u9c7c \u597d \u5403 \u5417\uff1f
How do you like the sweet and sour fish?<\/p>\n

m\u0251
\u561b: to indicate it is obvious<\/p>\n

zhè y\u011b bù nén\u0261 \u0261uài t\u0101 tóu yì huí m\u0251
\u8fd9 \u4e5f \u4e0d \u80fd \u602a \u4ed6\uff0c\u5934 \u4e00\u56de \u561b\u3002
He’s not to blame. After all, it was the first time he’d done it.<\/p>\n

Or, placed at the end of a sentence to draw attention to the following sentences:<\/p>\n

n\u01d0 m\u0251 jiù bú yòn\u0261 q\u012bn zì qù le
\u4f60 \u561b\uff0c\u5c31 \u4e0d \u7528 \u4eb2 \u81ea \u53bb\u4e86\u3002
As for you, I don’t think you have to go in person.<\/p>\n

(Source: \u7c73\u6765\u6c49\u8bed)
<\/div>\n