How do you say "yes/no question" in Chinese?

[feihong]

Looking online, I've seen 是否问题 and also 是非题 (I think this maybe has more of the meaning of true/false question). Does anyone know which one sounds better? And is there an alternative I don't know about?

[skylee]

use 是非題.

[feihong]

@skylee: Thanks!

Can 是非题 also be used for the kind of questions on a test that ask you for a true/false answer?

[jbradfor]

How would one say "true" and "false", versus "yes" and "no", in Chinese? Is there even such a distinction?

[skylee]

Sorry I don't think I understand the difference between a yes/no question and a true/false question. I can only think of the term 是非題. IMO 是否問題 is not acceptable. Perhaps other members could provide more information on this.

[Kenny同志]

是非题 applies to both a yes/no question and a true/false question. Nonetheless, you could also use 真假题 to refer to a true/false question. In certain contexts, say in mathematics, 真假命题 is more appropriate. And if it is a TV show involving a quiz of true/false questions, I would go with 真真假假, which fits the context better.

[Peter2010]

And is there an alternative I don't know about?

判断题 and 对错题 are acceptable as well.

How would one say "true" and "false", versus "yes" and "no", in Chinese? Is there even such a distinction?

literally, they are 真、假、是、非 respectively. You may want to distinguish 对错 (right and wrong) as well I guess. Their differences are subtle

[feihong]

@skylee

True/false questions usually refer to test questions. They deal with objective truth. The only acceptable answers are true or false.

A yes/no question can be objective. The number of acceptable answers is greater: yes, no, irrelevant, yes but..., no but...

@Peter2010

Can you say 否 instead of 非？I played this video game in Chinese where the computer would answer 是, 否, or 与此无关.

[Guoke]

yes/no question = 一般疑问句

[Peter2010]

Can you say 否 instead of 非？

Yes, you can.

PS In classical Chinese, 是 is paired with 非 while 然 is paired with 否 . e.g 处定是非，辩然否 --- 王充《论衡·定贤》

[Glenn]

I had assumed by "yes/no question" you meant it in the context that I'd always seen it in language learning, or just talking about language, and it's in opposition to "wh-word questions". For instance:

Yes/no question -- Can you help me with this?

Wh-word question -- Where did you go?

This is dfferent from "true or false: The Battle of Sekigahara took place in 1136." where you have to state the factual validity of something.

[liuzhou]

Both my bilingual linguistics dictionaries give 一般疑问句 for yes-no question, as Guoke gave.

[chaiknees]

Sorry if this is a little off-topic. Recently I realized quite often (I live in a city in Guangdong province) that in yes/no-questions the 吗 is replaced by 不, for example "可以不?" or "你明天过来不?". I think until a few months ago I have never realized that, but recently I have the impression that almost everybody does this... Has it become more common recently or is just my impression wrong?

[Iriya]

It's standard Mandarin. 你来不来 -> 你来不.

[Wesley Zhu]

“判断题，对错题” 比较常见。“是非题”也可以。“是否问题”是不对的，我从来没见过。