meaning of the word ba4 吧?
meir
June 16, 2010 at 06:16 AM posted in General DiscussionIn 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?
suxiaoya
June 16, 2010 at 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).
go_manly
June 16, 2010 at 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."
meir
July 08, 2010 at 05:31 PMThanks 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.