哈囉，大家好！ 哈啰，大家好！
I’m Grace from Grace Mandarin Chinese.
When learning Chinese, you might’ve noticed that
sometimes native Chinese speakers like to
add an extra word at the end of a sentence
such as 啊、嗎、吧、呢
We call them “sentence final particles”.
Have you ever wondered
why so many sentence-final particles exist in Chinese
but not in some other languages like English?
In this video, not only will you learn
why Chinese needs sentence-final particles
you’ll also get to know their functions
so you won’t feel confused when you’re learning them
那話不多說， 那话不多说，
我們現在開始吧！ 我们现在开始吧！
In order to figure out why we need sentience final particles in Chinese
let’s first talk about a hypothesis called the Intonation-Particle hypothesis
made by the linguist 馮勝利 (Shengli Feng, 2015)
This hypothesis deals with the relationships between
intonation, tones, and sentence-final particles
It states that sentence-final particles and intonation
are actually two sides of the same coin,
that is, sentence-final particles can be regarded as a variation of intonation.
“But wait a minute —
Why do some languages have sentence-final particles and some don’t?”
Well, you can guess a potential reason.
It’s likely because some languages have tones
and some others don’t…
Tones in languages are produced
by changing your vocal pitch to convey words’ meanings,
whereas intonation uses pitch variations to convey
a speaker’s attitude, emotion or other nuance.
Since both tones and intonations are conveyed through pitch,
they kind of contradict each other.
So if a language has both tones and intonations,
it’s kind of like having you and…
say, one of your family members trying to live in one room
it’s too crowded.
In this case, you’ll probably try to find a new space for yourself, right?
Intonation is actually doing exactly the same thing.
With both tones and intonations crowded in the same space,
we definitely need to give some more space for intonations,
so sentence-final particles are here to provide that extra space.
However, keep in mind that it doesn’t mean
that all tonal languages don’t change pitch to express intonation,
in Mandarin Chinese we still do it,
but we also have our assistant “sentence-final particles”
to help us fully realize the function of intonation.
We can change our pitch through these particles to express intonation.
For example, in English, when you frame a statement as a question,
often you’ll make the pitch of your voice high at the end of the sentence.
Like “He is a teacher?”
However, when you’re very certain about something,
you’ll instead make the pitch at the end of the sentence low.
Like, “Of course, he is a teacher!”
In Mandarin, you can use the sentence-final particle “ma”
to do something similar,
if you pronounce “ma” with a high pitch,
it’s used to ask a question, for example:
他是老師嗎？(Is he a teacher?)
But if you pronounce it with a low pitch after a statement,
like: 當然，他是老師嘛！(Of course, he is a teacher!)
It shows that the speaker thinks
the statement is blatantly true without question.
You can see that they even have two different characters.
And just a reminder, “嘛” this word is very casual,
so be careful using it.
Here is another example,
the particle “呢” can be placed after a question
to make the question sound softer and more polite,
and when it’s used in a question,
it’s pronounced with a high pitch, for example:
However, when 呢 is added after a statement
for emphasis or exaggeration,
it’s pronounced with a lower pitch, for instance,
However, this high and low pitch difference does not apply to
all of the sentence final particles in Mandarin.
For example, 啊 is a common sentence final particle
and instead of using a high pitch with a question,
we often use a lower pitch. For example,
When using 啊 to express exclamation,
we also pronounce it with a lower pitch, for instance,
When you use 啊 at the end of a statement with a higher pitch,
it shows a tone of certainty,
and depending on the context,
it could sometimes sound like you’re impatient or unhappy.
For example,
So you can see that since Chinese has tones,
the use of pitch for intonation is limited, so we have our helper —
“sentence-final particles” as a way to help us convey intonation.
We can change our pitch through these particles.
Now let’s talk a little more about the I-P hypothesis
I mentioned at the beginning of this video.
Since the use of pitch for tones and intonation are
to some extent contradictory, this hypothesis predicts that
all tonal languages have sentence-final particles,
and non-tonal languages don’t have them,
unless there are some other factors in them that affect intonation.
I know that many of you who’re watching my videos speak different languages,
so I’m curious to find out whether this hypothesis holds true in your language.
Please let me know in the comments below!
Alright, that’s all for today!
If you want to learn the use of sentence final particles in Mandarin Chinese,
I’ve made several videos as well as a PDF for your reference.
You can find them through the link in the first comment below.
那如果你喜歡今天的影片， 那如果你喜欢今天的影片，
別忘記按讚、訂閱和分享哦！ 别忘记按赞、订阅和分享哦！
Also, if you’d like to learn some daily Mandarin expressions,
check out my Instagram @gracemandarin
那我們下次見囉！拜拜！ 那我们下次见啰！拜拜！ I’ll see you next time! Bye!