么 vs. 吗

[LaoZhang]

我朋友经常说 “你好么?"

Is this usage of 么 more of 口语, regional usage (he lives in 吉林)? He said it's the same, but I think there's a little more to it than that.

All of the dictionaries show it as an interrogative particle, but I'm not familiar with this usage.

谢谢!

[jade-]

There is no difference between these two. 吗 is more formal and is taught in the textbook. And 么is with a bit of accent. In the case of 你好吗/么, they are the same. Only if you want to play safe, use 吗.

[muyongshi]

Did you try searching?

http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/8245-%e4%b9%88or-%e5%90%97

http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/6064-%e4%b9%88%e5%90%97%ef%bc%9f

And even if you couldn't find the top two, the one below contains links to the others....

http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/1459-ancient-chinese-architecture5

[LaoZhang]

Thanks for the responses Jade and muyongshi

Believe it or not, I did try searching.

吗 (result = too common)

么 (result = too common)

吗 vs. 么 (not found)

And I searched the web as well (only 中文 sites came up).

I've read enough posts and responses to know not to blindly ask something without doing a some research first. I don't want to get blasted by the veterans!

So my next project is to find out how to search better...

Thank you

PS Also a suggestion/reminder. If you found something that the OP didn't find by searching, it would be helpful and enabling to say "found this by searching "___" "

[muyongshi]

When searching characters doing a google site specific search is better

I myself had problems in searching for characters...

http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/14536-searching-in-characters

[Rhubarb]

Believe it or not' date=' I did try searching.

吗 (result = too common)

么 (result = too common)

吗 vs. 么 (not found)

And I searched the web as well (only 中文 sites came up).[/quote']

if you don't want "only 中文 sites" in your search results then add in some relevant English words like "which one?" "usage" "grammar"

it would be helpful and enabling to say "found this by searching "___" "

what do you mean by "enabling"?

found this by searching "么or 吗 which one should i use" but "么or 吗 which one" works just as fine, and this thread is even more useful, can you guess the keywords that will give you this result?

[c_redman]

The search phrases you suggested only work when there is no space between "么" and "or". If you search for "么or 吗 which one" you get 2 results, this thread and another one titled "么or 吗?" (note: no space between "么" and "or").

If you search for "么 or 吗", with an extra space, you get: zero results

I've seen other forums where every question is answered with a flame to search first (or better, or successfully), and it makes them uninviting places. I think a big problem is with the poor search capabilities in vBulletin, and is independent of character sets.

Here is how to use Google for a site-specific search: 么 吗 site:chinese-forums.com

Edit

what do you mean by "enabling"?

I think it means "teaching one to fish, not giving one a fish": enabling a person to do their own searches. Throwing out links to threads without explaining how they were found is a quick answer, but doesn't help the next time they try a search. Showing the actual search phrases one uses also helps understand the peculiarities of the vBulletin search. For example, by posting your search phrase, I was able see why you got results when I couldn't (it saw "么or" as a single search word, so the results were essentially a fluke).

[LaoZhang]

Well said, c_redman.

This is a friendly place, 是么?

[muyongshi]

And now if you did a search for 是么 it would now find your manual indexing...

[greenmoon55]

I'm in 吉林市 (Jilin City) and I don't know if your friend is in Jilin City or Jilin Province.

We always use 吗 when we chat with friends online instead of 么, but when we speak to each other in daily life, we pronounce 么 like 吗. So there's no difference when we pronounce them.

We write ”什么“ but we never use "什吗". I think "是吗" is more frequently used.

[jade-]

greenmoon55: I'm in 吉林市 (Jilin City) and I don't know if your friend is in Jilin City or Jilin Province.

We always use 吗 when we chat with friends online instead of 么, but when we speak to each other in daily life, we pronounce 么 like 吗. So there's no difference when we pronounce them.

We write ”什么“ but we never use "什吗". I think "是吗" is more frequently used.

You are right. 东北人use 吗, but 西北人intend to use 么 due to their accent. IMHO, a non native speaker would better not learn to use 么 instead of 吗. If a native speaker writes 么, he/she can get away with it; but if a non native speaker writes 么 instead of 吗, sooner or later, he/she will get corrected as using incorrect Chinese. Speaking Chinese is a little different though, both 吗 and 么 have light tones, it is hard to tell which word a person is using.

[Asiasy]

i think 吗 is used more frequently, and 么, if you are to write a composition,it`s ok using 么. for one,

你还好么? 你还好吗? exactly the same.

personally i think 么 is a little bit literary.

do remember there`s only 什么 , no 什吗...

[hoosdathu]

there's no difference in meaning, just a different accent, imho.

i'm a singaporean chinese btw