learner's way to understand 嗎, 咯, 啊, 呢, 喔

[mcgau]

If you (a learner, not native speaker) believe that you can master the usage of them all, can you tell me how?

i can idiomatically use them without any problems and i can easily tell the usage is correct or not, so i don't really need an explanation on the meanings of these end-words. But how is it possible to teach a learner how to use them?

[rivercao]

嗎, 咯, 啊, 呢, 喔 ：

A：嫁给我，好吗？

B：好咯。

A：真的啊？

B：骗你呢。

A：喔。

[Glenn]

But how is it possible to teach a learner how to use them?

How did you learn them?

A：嫁给我，好吗？

B：好咯。

A：真的啊？

B：骗你呢。

A：喔。

Haha, well, if nothing else they'll be entertained!

[mcgau]

How did you learn them?

I met some Americans and Canadian who are possibly lesser capable at explaining some grammar usage than many English learners, although the former absolutely speaks much better English.

How did you learn your mother tongue? I don't even remember.

[Glenn]

Oh, I didn't know you were Chinese. Sorry.

You do mean how would someone who's not a native Chinese speaker would learn to use them in Chinese, right? I'd say you could give them basic meanings, and then let them get a feel for them by hearing and reading them a lot. In that sense I think the dialog posted by rivercao would be helpful.

[Shi Tong]

I agree with Glenn, they all have a meaning and they're used at the ends of sentences.

I remember learning 嗎 and being told it was like a question mark, quite a good descriptive way of describing the rest is to say this, because this is what I was told:

Because Chinese uses tones, sometimes an extra word can be used at the end of a setence to help describe feelings:

好 (ok)

好嗎 (is this ok?-- question)

好啊 (this is definately ok!! denotes enthusiasm)

好吧 (can be used as "if we have to", but, depending on vocalisation can also be "fine")

好啦 (quite an annoyed tone-- this is definately what we describe in English as "ALRIGHT!!!")

It's experience too, there are sounds people add as end particles which aren't even in the dictionary, TBH.

[rivercao]

Here are my conlusion:

好 = ok

好嗎 = Is that ok?

好啊 = "good idea!"

好吧 means: agreed with a little bit reluctance, or after a negotiation.

好啦 means: ok, fairly enough. or a tactful way of saying"please stop".

[stonelee]

If add these words : 呀 哦 哟 嘛 咧

The discussion will be more complicated~

[Shi Tong]

I agree stonelee, but I've only heard a couple of those in all my time of learning Chinese (9 years). Maybe it's something they use in a different region from where I learned, but even so.

I suppose what the point is how to describe to a Chinese learner the reason for, and the meaning of common end particles, and I think I demonstrated a good tactic for tackling this when faced with this teaching question...

Maybe.