Modal particles

[Saturday]

Yeah, chinese people uses these alot. 哦，吧，嘿，啊 etc etc. And everytime I come accross one of these and try to look up it's meaning in my dictionary(-ies) I just get the explination of that it's a "modal particle", but not it's meaning or implication. Disturbing.

Anyone knows about a webpage or whatever where all of these are listed?

[skylee]

I think this paper, written in traditional Chinese, is pretty good reference. As there is '.tw' in the url, I've copied and attached the file here.

語氣詞與國小語文教學.pdf

[Saturday]

Thanks for the effort Skylee, but all those explinations are in chinese. And since I am merly somewhat of a beginner on that subject I wonder if someone else feels like contributing?

[jade-]

Hi Saturday,

Unfortunately, these words do not have real meanings. They are most likely put by the ends of the sentences to express/stress the speaker's feelings. For example:

哦 - speaker either has doubt or understands what he/she heard, depending on which tone is used

吧 - speaker suggests, requries, or gives order

嘿 - speaker wants your attention, more like hey in English, or just simply says hi

啊 - this is the mostly used one, skeaker sighs, is doubtful or undoubtedly, it all depends.

As a beginner, you can speak without them though, people will understand you. I guess it is probably the reason that it is hard to find a website to list them since there are many other things you need to learn before you use them.

[self-taught-mba]

Ah the memories in the brief time I spent in classes.

Teacher: "shenme shenme modal particle shenme shenme" all said in Chinese with the words modal particle being in English. Students were like wth is a modal particle?!

Resource:

By far, the best definitions I've seen are in the ABC Dictionary, by John DeFrancis

Many of these things are used to approximate sounds. 嘿嘿 for example can be used to indicate an evil style laugh in a joking manner. Often sent over text messages.

Jade is right for the most part but you definitely need to learn some of them. You really do need to know how to use "ba"

[Saturday]

Ah, too bad I dispite the chinese dictionaries on book form.

And like that example of ours; the 嘿嘿 it's that kind of explinations I am looking for. And I doubt you'll find it in an ordinary dictionary..

So. What about the 嘛 then, my textbook only gives a fairly vague explination of it's usage. How to I use this modal particle in a correct sense?

[muyongshi]

For 嘛 start with this, this and this.

嘿嘿 for example can be used to indicate an evil style laugh in a joking manner. Often sent over text messages.

Little clarification. It can be used for an "evil laugh" as said above and quite separately as a usage it is frequently sent over text messages (meaning that it doesn't necessarily mean evil laugh). In text messages it has many usages: it can be like a start to the message meaning "Hey! How you doing?" 嘿嘿你好吗 and it can also just be used in situation where you have nothing to say. "So, today I'm doing all this really boring stuff" so in response just to acknowledge me since you have nothing intelligent to add to my already unintelligent message you reply 嘿嘿

[self-taught-mba]

Thanks to muyongshi for the expansion.

Like I said, "Many of these things are used to approximate sounds." And his first example is exactly that. Mine was just an example. He is right; there are a multitude of usages for them.

Also some of them are quite often interchangeable depending upon who sends them apparently. This is especially the case when they're used to approximate sounds only. People become a little bit sloppy with them if you will.

I don't like book forms either.

The ABC dictionary is also available as a software www.wenlin.com and www.pleco.com

(there's a reason why we purchase Pleco for all of our students)

[ipsi()]

I frequently see laughter as 呵呵. Never seen 嘿嘿 though.

[muyongshi]

嘿嘿 is only used as a simulation of an evil laugh. Kind of like wa ha ha ha ha ha or something like that. There is also 哈哈 呵呵 嘻嘻 all used for different types of laughing and as self taught pointed out they are used to represent sounds so the usage is sloppy but 嘻嘻 tends to be a girly giggle 呵呵 is like a little smirk and 哈哈 is more laughing.

[jade-]

Saturday

So. What about the 嘛 then, my textbook only gives a fairly vague explination of it's usage. How to I use this modal particle in a correct sense?

你这是干什么嘛？what are you doing? - speaker is complaining.

这不是很好嘛! This result is very good! - speaker is emphasizing the good result.

[jade-]

There are slight differences among 哈哈 呵呵 嘻嘻 嘿嘿.

呵呵, 嘿嘿 - those are more used by men. When men use them, they are not necessary evil or joking, sometimes they only mean men are laughing. When women use them, they could more mean evil, joking, or playful.

嘻嘻 - this is used more for women or kids. Men can use it sometimes, but not too often. If a man had kept sending me messages with a lot of 嘻嘻, it would have given me goose bumps.

哈哈 - can be used by anyone. It simply means laughing hard, hahaha...

[neverain]

my suggestion....

you just need to pronounce those words. what it's sounds like then it is.

and sometime they just means nothing.....

来吧 = come here/on

here 吧 means nothing ,but they make up a word,not a single character. anyway it sounds better.

[atitarev]

If you know Chinese, you don't the translation from Russian. I like this onomatopoeia list (animal talk).

http://www.papahuhu.com/vocabulary/animaltalk.html