The single easiest thing to do in Chinese grammar is ask a yes/no question: take a statement, leave every word exactly where it is, and stick 吗 (ma) on the end. That's it. English speakers spend years drilling do-support ("Do you like it?"), auxiliary inversion ("Is she coming?") and question intonation — Chinese throws all of that out. 我是学生 ("I am a student") becomes 你是学生吗? ("Are you a student?") with zero rewiring. 吗 is toneless, it lives at the very end, and it turns a plain assertion into a neutral request for a yes-or-no.
Statement order, unchanged
The core rule is best learned as a non-rule: don't do anything except add 吗. No subject–verb inversion, no auxiliary, no shuffling.
| Statement |
|
|---|---|
| 你是学生 (you are a student) | 你是学生吗？(are you a student?) |
| 他来 (he comes) | 他来吗？(is he coming?) |
| 这个好吃 (this is tasty) | 这个好吃吗？(is this tasty?) |
| 你喜欢北京 (you like Beijing) | 你喜欢北京吗？(do you like Beijing?) |
你是中国人吗？
nǐ shì Zhōngguó rén ma
Are you Chinese? (neutral) — statement order kept, 吗 added.
今天晚上你有空吗？
jīntiān wǎnshang nǐ yǒu kòng ma
Are you free tonight? (informal) — a real invitation opener; nothing inverts.
这家餐厅的菜好吃吗？
zhè jiā cāntīng de cài hǎo chī ma
Is the food at this restaurant good? (informal) — 吗 on an adjective predicate works the same way.
Answering a 吗 question: echo the verb
Here's where English habits mislead. English answers with "Yes/No" plus an auxiliary ("Yes, I do / No, she isn't"). Chinese has no all-purpose "yes"; you answer by repeating the verb, affirmed or negated.
| Question | Yes | No |
|---|---|---|
| 你去吗？(are you going?) | 去 (going) | 不去 (not going) |
| 他是老师吗？(is he a teacher?) | 是 (is) | 不是 (isn't) |
| 你有车吗？(do you have a car?) | 有 (have) | 没有 (don't have) |
——你喝咖啡吗？——喝，谢谢。
— nǐ hē kāfēi ma — hē, xièxie
'Do you drink coffee?' 'Yes, thanks.' (informal) — the answer echoes the verb 喝, not a word for 'yes'.
——你饿吗？——不饿，刚吃过。
— nǐ è ma — bú è, gāng chī guo
'Are you hungry?' 'No, I just ate.' (informal) — negate the adjective 饿 to say 'no'.
Only when the verb actually is 是 do you answer with 是/不是 — that's why "yes" so often looks like 是, but really you're just echoing the verb that happened to be 是. For the full answering system see answering yes/no questions.
吗 vs the A-not-A question
Chinese has a second way to ask the very same yes/no question: the A-not-A pattern, where you say the verb, then 不, then the verb again — 去不去, 是不是, 好不好. Both are correct; the difference is nuance.
你去不去？
nǐ qù bu qù
Are you going (or not)? (neutral) — the A-not-A form; lays the two options out explicitly.
你去吗？
nǐ qù ma
Are you going? (neutral) — the 吗 form; a plain yes/no.
The A-not-A form (see A-not-A questions) feels a touch more neutral and is handy when you're genuinely offering a choice; 吗 can carry a faint expectation. Crucially, you can't combine them — a sentence already made a question by A-not-A must not also take 吗.
这个周末你有没有时间？
zhège zhōumò nǐ yǒu méiyǒu shíjiān
Do you have time this weekend? (informal) — A-not-A on 有 (有没有); no 吗 needed.
Common Mistakes
1. Adding 吗 to a sentence that already has a question word. A wh-word (哪儿, 什么, 谁) already makes it a question. This is the classic error — see 吗 vs question words.
❌ 你去哪儿吗？
Incorrect — 哪儿 already asks the question; drop 吗: 你去哪儿?
✅ 你去哪儿？
nǐ qù nǎr
Where are you going? (neutral) — no 吗 with a question word.
2. Stacking 吗 onto an A-not-A question. Pick one question strategy, not both.
❌ 你去不去吗？
Incorrect — 去不去 is already a question; you can't add 吗. Say 你去不去? or 你去吗?
✅ 你是不是学生？
nǐ shì bu shì xuésheng
Are you a student? (neutral) — clean A-not-A, no 吗.
3. Answering with a bare 是 to a non-是 question. Echo the actual verb, not a reflex "yes."
❌ ——你去吗？——是。
Unnatural — you don't answer 去-questions with 是; echo the verb: 去.
✅ ——你去吗？——去。
— nǐ qù ma — qù
'Are you going?' 'Yes (going).' (informal) — repeat 去 to affirm.
4. Inverting or adding 'do' out of English habit. There is no auxiliary and no inversion; keep statement order.
❌ 是你学生吗？
Incorrect — don't invert like English 'Are you…'; keep subject first: 你是学生吗?
✅ 你是学生吗？
nǐ shì xuésheng ma
Are you a student? (neutral) — subject–verb order unchanged, 吗 at the end.
Key Takeaways
- To ask a yes/no question, keep the statement exactly as it is and add toneless 吗 at the end — no inversion, no "do."
- Answer by echoing the verb: 去/不去, 有/没有, 是/不是 — Chinese has no all-purpose "yes."
- A-not-A (你去不去?) asks the same thing with a slightly more neutral, option-laying feel; you may use it instead of 吗, never with it.
- 吗 works on verb predicates (你来吗) and adjective predicates (好吃吗) alike.
- Never put 吗 on a sentence that already contains a question word — that's a separate, very common mistake.
Now practice Chinese
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Start learning Chinese→Related Topics
- 吗 vs Question-Word Questions (Don't Double)HSK 2 — A Chinese sentence is a question in one of two ways, never both: a question word in place (你去哪儿?) OR final 吗 on a statement (你去吗?) — the notorious *你去哪儿吗 stacks both and is wrong.
- A-not-A Questions (是不是, 去不去)HSK 1 — A second neutral way to ask yes/no: juxtapose the positive and negative of the verb or adjective — 去不去, 好不好, 是不是. The middle 不 is toneless, 有 uses 没 (有没有), and you never add 吗.
- Yes-No Questions with 吗 (ma)HSK 1 — The default way to ask a yes/no question: take a complete statement, change nothing, and add 吗 (ma) at the end. 你有时间吗? Answer by echoing the verb, not with a word for 'yes'.
- 吧 (Supposition / Seeking Confirmation)HSK 2 — The same 吧 (ba) on a factual statement marks a guess you want confirmed — English 'right? / I suppose': 你是老师吧？他走了吧？— reduced certainty, unlike the genuinely open 吗.