Is this phrasing understandable?

[ZC]

In English, if I want to pose a question to somebody who might or might not know the answer I will often use the (understandable but non standard) phrasing “Do you know? [question]?” With little or no confusion. In Chinese is a phrase like: “这道吗？[Question]?” easy to understand or should I just use something more like “[question]呢?”

[Tomsima]

“是不是” will work better for you if you already have an inclination of the answer. Make a statement and tack on 是不是（這樣）at the end for confirmation or correction.

If “知道嗎” comes after your question, it's more like "know what I mean?" (“知道嘛”)

More formal you could try out 關於（topic）, then ask question with 嗎 or question word as usual.

 呢 as you almost certainly already know, but for clarification, is a question related to what you are talking about but calls for new info (what about…?)

吧 Calls for confirmation when you're pretty sure about the answer to the question and think the listener probably agrees with you.

 

There are many many ways to phrase a question, porbably best to try out a few of the above, as starting a question with 知道嗎 will confuse people, it's a very English way to phrase a question. Try to convey information first then inquire at the end.

[ZC]

Thanks for the info! I think the construction I was asking about was maybe closer to asking some random undergrad: 知道吗？外国学生办公室什么时候开门？ I’m familiar with most of those uses, I was more wondering if it would work as a similar construct to or an interjective phrase to follow something like 请问. This is more like asking in the context that I want an answer that I don’t know and maybe you do or don’t.

[roddy]

52 minutes ago, ZC said:

In English, if I want to pose a question to somebody who might or might not know the answer I will often use the (understandable but non standard) phrasing “Do you know? [question]?” With little or no confusion

While that'd be understood, I don't think it's natural English. "Do you know (if John is coming / when John is coming / where the hell John is)?" would be fine, but something like "Do you know? Is John coming?" sounds odd. Apart from anything else it's two yes/no questions in quick succession, which is a recipe for confusion. 

 

As for Chinese - closest would be a 知不知道/知道嗎？ before or after the question, I think. I wouldn't do that AND 请问 though, it's getting a bit convoluted when Chinese is a bit more inclined to get to the question.

[Publius]

I was asked a similar question just 20 minutes ago...

師傅，你知道9號樓在哪邊嗎？

Just substitute 師傅 with 同學 and you're good.

 

It's actually quite similar to English except no subject-verb inversion in the main clause and no wh-fronting in the sub clause.

If you want to be more polite,

請問，您知道9號樓在哪邊嗎？  or 請問，您知不知道9號樓在哪邊？

 

請問您知道嗎——9號樓在哪邊啊？ or 請問9號樓在哪邊，您知道嗎？ is also okay.

 

But abruptly throwing a 知道嗎 at somebody, that is not okay.

It's like 'Guess what', that is, used to draw attention to the information you want to share rather than elicit an answer. 知道嗎？9號樓昨天晚上出事了！

[ZC]

47 minutes ago, Publius said:

But abruptly throwing a 知道嗎 at somebody, that is not okay.

It's like 'Guess what', that is, used to draw attention to the information you want to share rather than elicit an answer. 知道嗎？9號樓昨天晚上出事了！

Haha! Glad I asked before using it! Thanks for the tips on how to preface, it still feels weird to me to ask a question without some extra phrase before but knowing what is strange/normal is pretty useful. Also what happened at building 9? Now I want to know

 

1 hour ago, roddy said:

While that'd be understood, I don't think it's natural English.

It’s definitely a dialect thing, I think it comes from how people from the southern US are almost comically wordy. So I might without exaggeration say “Do you know? Is John going to be coming at all or is that not going to be the case tonight?” Going from that sort of structure to Chinese is a struggle.

 

edit: I’d probably actually throw an over in that sentence somewhere.

[imron]

3 hours ago, roddy said:

closest would be a 知不知道/知道嗎？ before or after the question, I think. I wouldn't do that AND 请问 though, it's getting a bit convoluted

Not to mention Roddy's examples have mixed Simplified and Traditional characters, and that will just completely confuse the listener.

 

3 hours ago, Publius said:

I was asked a similar question just 20 minutes ago... 師傅，你知道9號樓在哪邊嗎？

Moonlighting for 滴滴出行 Publius? ;)

 

[889]

If it seems too direct in context just to baldly ask a question, then you can preface it with something that signals a question is coming:

 

可以问你 . . .

 

问你一下 . . .

 

我想问你一个小问题 . . .

 

等等。

[anonymoose]

5 hours ago, 889 said:

我想问你一个小问题 . . .

 

With such an introduction, I'd be bracing myself for the question, like "Do you have an STD?" or something. A bit over the top if you just want to know where building 9 is.

[889]

" . . . 你其他的女朋友一共多少?"

[Flickserve]

The English sounds a bit odd to me.

 

Starting off with 请问 would keep things nice and simple.