meaning of the word ba4 吧?

meir
 June 16, 2010, 06:16 AM posted in General Discussion
In the sentence 长安街,坐公共汽车吧 If I understand it correctly it means"Chángān Jiē, take the bus (from that street) ba4. I don't know what that last word "ba4" means. An online dictionary says it is used for emphasis but how and why?
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go_manly
 June 16, 2010, 08:35 AM

For starters, it is ba5 (neutral tone), not ba4 (bà).

It indicates suggestion - "Why don't you take the bus at Chángān Street".

Or, in more stilted English:  "Take the bus from Chángān Street, why don't you."

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suxiaoya
 June 16, 2010, 09:02 AM

meir -

As go_manly says, using 吧 at the end of the sentence turns a statement into a suggestion. You can also use it to just confirm something.

For example, you can say 对吧? / duì ba? if you want to confirm that something is correct.

There's a Qing Wen lesson all about this particular usage of 吧 ba (can listen here).

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meir
 July 08, 2010, 05:31 PM

Thanks so much for your help , you two, that word had been really bothering me since it was never defined or explained it was just added as an exercise surprise.