Chinese Particles:
Disclaimer: Don’t spend time on these! …for now - especially if you’re just a beginner. I find it takes a while to wrap your mind around these. But the best method is to watch the movie over and over and refer to the Dialogue of each blog post and Lesson Plan. After a while it will just make sense. WHY? Because you will end up remembering sentence by sentence and NOT word for word. And remembering sentence by sentence is the best way to learn a language anyway! Just watch the movie and study the dialogue.
As you watch the movie, you will sometimes see abbreviations in the Word-for-Word Translation line (3rd line) . These abbreviations are usually “P“, “QP“, “PCA“, “EF“, “EP“.
Later on in the movie only “P” is used and it refers to all of these. All these particles are listed below with explanations and examples. You can refer to them as you watch the movie.
For these particles below, there are very few examples. All the examples can be found in the Dialogue of each Lesson or in the subtitles of the movie.
好
hǎo - can mean an action has been finished. 我洗好了wǒ xǐ hǎo le - I finished showering, I just showered, I just finished showering. 我修好了 wǒ xiū hǎo le - I fixed it, I finished fixing it, etc. 好 is used for lots of other things which are not grammatical. It can mean “all right”, “ok”, “sure”, etc. Or 好看 hǎo kàn = lit. “good look” = good looking. 好听 = hǎo tīng = good listen = sounds nice (for music/voice).
了
le - particle of completed action, PCA (will see “PCA” in the subtitles/Dialogue). It can be used after a verb (action) to say that you have completed that action. It also used when the situation has changed, eg 下雪 vs 下雪了. 下雪 = xìa xuě = snowing. But 下雪了 = xìa xuě le = it’s snowing NOW (ie, it wasn’t snowing before, it just starting snowing now).
吗
ma - question particle, QP, used at the end of a question (usually to indicate a “yes or no” question)
呢
ne - empatic final, EF. It is also added to rhetorical question. It’s also used like “what about ___?” “How about ___” eg, 你呢? = nǐ ne = How about you? = What about you? It’s also used when you paused in mid-sentence, eg 这个呢… = zhè gè ne… = For this, uh…
啊
a - exclamatory particle, EP - Like “ah”, “oh”, “huh”. It can also be placed at the end of the sentence and is usually used when being polite or when you’re excited about something.
的
de - possessive adjectival suffix, PAS and its used after an adjective. eg 我的名字是jack = wǒ de míngzi shì Jack = My name is Jack. 的 changes “I” to “my”. 里面的人 lǐmiàn de rén lit. means “inside’s people” or the people inside. 飞机里面的人 = fēijī lǐmiàn de rén = “airplane inside’s people” = the people inside the airplane.
呀
ya - I find it’s more often used in a complaining tone or expresses a tone of urgency. 你干什么呀? nǐ gàn shénme ya = what the hell are you doing?
嘛
ma. This is funny one. It pretty much expresses an obvious tone to the sentence and it used when the statement is obviously correct and both parties agree. eg, If I have a super-hot girlfriend and you see her and obviously agree that she is indeed super hot, you can say 他很漂亮嘛 = tā hěn piàoliang ma. 嘛 basically points out obvious stuff.
嘛 can also be used for a mid-sentence pause, much like 呢.
得
dé, dei3. 得 = dei3 must. But it is also used for grammatical purposes - it’s a “compliment to indicate result”. Eg 跑得快 = pǎo dé kuài = run dé fast = running fast. 他跑得很快 = tā pǎo dé hěn kuài = he run dé very fast = she runs very fast. You can use this same pattern for lots of things: he talks very fast, she types very fast, he drinks very fast, etc.
吧
bā （found in 4.3, Lesson 4)。 I will call this a Suggestion Particle, SP or just P (you will see this abbreviation in the subtitles throughout the movie). It is used at the end of a sentence to make the statement softer, like in a suggestion. The other person usually almost always replies with a “yes”. Eg 我们走吧 = wǒmen zǒu bā = let’s go, 我们去吃饭吧 = wǒmen qù chīfàn bā = lets go eat.
It can also be used in questions when you already know the answer: 你没事吧？= nǐ méishì bā = So you’re ok. 你开始上课了吧 = nǐ kāishǐ shàngkè le bā？= So your classes have already started. 你是Mike吧？= nǐ shì Mike bā = So you’re Mike. (note how in Chinese 吧 is sometimes followed by a question mark, whereas in English these kinds of sentences are usually statements. You will see this a lot, not just with 吧.)
