Is this right: 你们去旅游啊、跟家里人团聚啊、有别的事啊、没什么特别事啊？
xiaophil
February 22, 2010, 01:38 AM posted in I Have a QuestionI just posted here the following question in 中文吧:
你们去旅游啊、跟家里人团聚啊、有别的事啊、没什么特别事啊？
Did I do this right? I was trying to say in a 'flowing manner' this:
Did you go traveling, get together with your family, did something else, didn't do much of anything?
I'm interested in finding out any mistakes, but I am most interested in knowing if 啊 can be used the way I used it above.
honglok
April 16, 2010, 03:00 AMI read your words,it's very intersted.
changye
February 23, 2010, 05:14 AMCan you use the "啊" (for "flowing manner") in an interrogative sentence?
JasonSch
February 23, 2010, 05:17 AMI can't speak to the actual linguistic rules concerning 啊, but in my experience, it's used mostly for emphasis (listing things, surprise, rhetorical questions) and not usually when asking a question like this.
I think maybe 吧 would be more appropriate here?
I could be wrong though! It's possible that there are less common uses that I'm not familiar with. These are just some thoughts off the top of my head.
xiaophil
February 23, 2010, 06:37 AMI get a strange feeling in my head whether I say 吧 or 啊 in the sentence. Any Chinese out there ready to jump in with answers?
cassielin
February 23, 2010, 06:53 AMxiaophil,
我想你是要问：“你（们）去旅行了吗？你（们）和家人团聚了吗？你（们）做了一些特别的事吗？还是没有做什么特别的事呢？”
xiaophil
Thanks. I was trying to turn something easy into something hard.
cassielin
hehe，you are welcome!^_^
lujiaojie
你们去旅游啊？
跟家里人团聚啊？
There are not real questions, just “打招呼”。
"有别的事啊？and 没什么特别的事啊？" 啊 in these two sentences is question word, like 吗。
For "Did you go traveling, get together with your family, did something else, didn't do much of anything? " you can say:
你去旅行了吗？ 跟家人团聚了吗？ 有没有什么特别的事呢？
xiaophil
February 23, 2010, 04:14 AMAbsolutely nobody has any idea? ;-)
xiaophil
February 23, 2010, 07:03 AMThanks. I was trying to turn something easy into something hard.
cassielin
February 23, 2010, 07:04 AMhehe，you are welcome!^_^
zhenlijiang
February 23, 2010, 08:00 AMThis brings to my mind another question, about punctuation--for how long has the 问号 question mark been in use in Chinese? The 叹号 exclamation mark?
And sorry this isn't about Chinese but where did the question mark originate? What are some current languages that do without it?
changye
HI zhenlijiang
A question mark and an exclamation mark gradually began to be used after the colloquial Chinese movement (白话运动) in the early 20th century.
zhenlijiang
Orangina I was just reading at the link you gave--thanks (and sorry to see it gone ...)!
orangina
Here it is again... I removed it because there is quite a bit in the comments section questioning it's validity. I was hoping to find a more reputable link. But it is entertaining!
changye
February 23, 2010, 08:31 AMHI zhenlijiang
A question mark and an exclamation mark gradually began to be used after the colloquial Chinese movement (白话运动) in the early 20th century.
zhenlijiang
February 23, 2010, 08:35 AMOrangina I was just reading at the link you gave--thanks (and sorry to see it gone ...)!
xiaophil
February 22, 2010, 10:49 AMNo ideas? ;-)