语气词和反问句
Mood particles and rhetorical questions

“你好吗？”“我很好，你呢？”——“吗”“呢”第一级就用上了；“早点儿睡吧”里的“吧”是第四级学的。它们不改变句子说的事，只改变说话人的态度——这就是语气词。今天把常用的五个放在一起（“啊”“嘛”是新的），再学一种不是真问的问句：反问句。

你好吗？ and 我很好，你呢？ have carried 吗 and 呢 since level 1; 早点儿睡吧 gave you 吧 in level 4. None of these small characters changes what the sentence reports; each changes how the speaker stands towards it. That is a 语气词. Here are the five common ones — 啊 and 嘛 are new today — and then a question that is not really asking at all: the 反问句.

语气词管的是整句话，不是句子里的某一个词，所以它只能站在最后。它们都读轻声，写出来都带口字旁：吗、呢、吧、啊、嘛。一句话里可以一个语气词也没有；加上以后，说的事情不变，变的是说话人的态度：是问，是猜，是催，还是提醒。

A 语气词 governs the whole sentence rather than any single word in it, which is why it can only stand last. All five are neutral in tone, and all five are written with the 口 radical you met in level 8: 吗, 呢, 吧, 啊, 嘛. Take the particle away and the sentence still reports the same thing; what you lose is the speaker's stance — asking, guessing, urging, reminding.

“呢”有两个常见的用法：一个是省略问句，“我很好，你呢？”，只说出话题就够了；一个是跟“在”配合，说事情正在进行，“他在睡觉呢”。“吧”也有两个：跟别人商量的时候是“我们走吧”，心里已经有答案、只想证实一下的时候是“你是李明吧？”。同一句话，用“吗”是真不知道，用“吧”是八成知道了。

呢 does two everyday jobs: it makes an elliptical question — 我很好，你呢？, where naming the topic is enough — and it teams up with 在 to report something in progress, 他在睡觉呢. 吧 also does two: 我们走吧 proposes, while 你是李明吧？ checks a guess you already half hold. 吗 means you genuinely do not know; 吧 means you are eight parts sure.

“啊”在口语里会受前面那个音的影响，写下来常常变成别的字：“是你呀！”“真难哪！”写成“啊”也不算错，读的时候自然就变了。“嘛”只用在口语里，语气很随便，对长辈或者不太熟的人少用。

In speech 啊 assimilates to the sound in front of it, and writers often spell the result out: 是你呀！, 真难哪！ Writing plain 啊 is never wrong — the change happens by itself when you read aloud. 嘛 belongs to 口语 only and is quite casual; keep it away from elders and people you do not know well.

常见的格式有三种：“不是……吗”——“这不是很简单吗？”；“难道……吗”——“难道你不知道？”；还有疑问词加上反问的语气——“谁不知道？”“我哪儿有时间？”。反问句不是真的在问，说话人要的是同意，不是答案，所以语气总带着一点儿情绪：惊讶、着急，或者不高兴。写文章的时候用得好很有力量，用得多就显得咄咄逼人。

Three common shapes: 不是…吗 (这不是很简单吗？), 难道…吗 (难道你不知道？), and a question word carrying a rhetorical tone (谁不知道？, 我哪儿有时间？). A 反问句 is not really asking: the speaker wants agreement, not information, so it always carries feeling — surprise, impatience, irritation. Used sparingly in writing it is powerful; used often it turns 咄咄逼人, aggressive.