吧 and 啊 usage

[chen88]

I am rather confused about the usages of 吧 and 啊. I have heard that using 吧 is impolite, but at the same time Chinese people seem to use it frequently in ways like 还好吧 or 是吧？And of course there is the awkward phrase 来吧 ! Can someone distill the usage of 吧 a bit more？

Also, 啊. Do people tend to avoid it adding it on to words when speaking in formal Chinese?

Edited August 9, 2009 at 02:20 PM by chen88

[muyongshi]

I'm going to give you an answer that you will NOT like: SEARCH

These identical questions have been addressed over and over on these forums. Now let me tell you what is going to happen, some kind hearted, hero complex-ed, desire to answer everyone's question is going to come along and answer your question quite thoroughly, again. While this makes you happy, it will not make many of us happy since the question has been answered {quite thoroughly} in other threads, and as soon as someone answers, all those clarifications and other thoughts will need to be retyped and brought back in.

Point being-

Before asking a question, attempt to answer it yourself – Google, the site search, dictionaries (online or on paper) are good places to start. If you still need help, explain what you have found and why you need more assistance.

[skylee]

These might be helpful -

http://humanum.arts.cuhk.edu.hk/cgi-bin/agrep-lindict?query=%a7%61&category=wholerecord

http://humanum.arts.cuhk.edu.hk/cgi-bin/agrep-lindict?query=%a7%61&category=wholerecord

Searching is of course a good idea, though searching with a single character on this website is not always fruitful.

Now let's wait for the thorough answers of those kind hearted and hero complex-ed.

[muyongshi]

Just since searching is so "bloody difficult" I did the work for you:

Read this

And then because I know it's going to come up check out this and this. On the last one just scroll down a bit.

Here it goes again... I do not look forward to the extensive posts to come as this gets re brought up.

[HashiriKata]

Now let's wait for the thorough answers of those kind hearted and hero complex-ed.

Hey, the wait is now ended and here comes the hero!

Seriously, for general questions about the uses of certain words and the like, I think you'll often get better and more thorough answers in textbooks or dictionaries.

What I can help here is just some trivial points:

No, the use of 吧 is NOT impolite. 吧 is just like a tool, and if you use it correctly, it can only make your meaning clearer and you sound nicer.

Yes, what you said about 啊 is correct: 啊 is used almost exclusively in informal spoken language.

[muyongshi]

the wait is now ended and here comes the hero

Our hero!!

[chen88]

Okay, thanks for the answers! And apparently I overlooked the search tool. 不好意思 I won't start a post like this one again.