How to use 啊?

[Patrick_ChineseForum]

Hi,

I'm self teaching Chinese. Most of my learning materials are online. I've noticed that the character 啊 has been used quite a lot in the conversations (usually at the end of the sentence). The funny thing is that the lessons never mentioned about how/when to use it. Currently I'm at lesson 24 already. I don't think they will ever teach about this character. Maybe it's not important? Please advice.

Thank you,

Patrick

[Shelley]

Hi

I believe it is just a sound and doesn't mean anything. It's sound is a or ah

Used at the end of sentances to add balance as my chinese teacher described.

I have also noticed chinese people use it when listening to someone, they wil say ah ah ah and nod their heads in agreement.

It can also be used at the begining of sentances the same as in english you would use oh. Oh look there is a rainbow.

or Ah, that is a lovely flower.

It is basicaly a noise.

It is one of those things that will become clear as you progress.

Pleco says: interjection (expressing surprise or admiration)

Hope this helps

Shelley

[歐博思]

啊，感叹词哦，recently these were a subject of my Renren rant blog; there are many of these and they aren't very intuitive to use sometimes. 唉 I wish I could extrapolate on this more.

[LaoJian]

啊 is really a word rich in abundant of meanings and pronunciations in China, people would like to use it often to stress a sense of strong feelings they have in expression with certain situation or context. I like to give a brief introduction here base on my understanding:

啊 - 感叹词 and 语气助词(auxiliary word of tone)

啊(a1) - a sense of surprise，strongly praise; similar as English word - Oh! Wow! Gosh! Ah! Mmm!

Example:

1.When you taste a delicious food - closing eyes and enjoy flavor in your mouth, then start your compliment with this word '啊，太好吃了~！'

2. When you randomly meet a beautiful girl passing by you on the street, you can give a sincerely comment loudly "啊，美女，你实在太漂亮了！ may I have your phone number... ..."

啊(a2) with long pronunciation- are mostly to express a doubtful or unbelievable feeling, as well as surprise(in my experience, the thing you doubt are most likely to be negative)

Example:

1. When a friend told you news that Whitney Houston was dead yesterday. You can response this with '啊，这是真的吗？！'

2. you lend your car to your friend to drive, but hours later, you got a phone call from him that he met a serious traffic accident when driving your car(啊？ 我的车啊... crying)

啊(a3) - similar as 啊(a2)， I indeed got some people expressing same feeling of 啊(a2) with 3rd tone, I think this is due to pronunciation difference, either of them is correct.

啊(a4) -

->express a positive answer or just confirm you got what he is saying(like English word: Ok. I got it. Yes. )

Example:

1. Would you like to give me a hand? - 啊，I'm coming.

2. You need to clean your house before tonight, clear? - 啊， I will.

->Ouch! Damn!

Example:

1. (You knocked over your cup, and coffee split all over the table) 啊！真晕

2. (You pricked your finger when sewing) 啊！真疼

啊(a - unstressed vowel) - usually use as a ending word in one sentence to emphasis on your manner of speaking or express surprise. Or a long pronounce meaning of sigh

Example:

1. 你好啊~

2. 是啊~

3. 啊~， I'm so tired!

A reference for you could know about this topic better (Pure Chinese)

http://www.zdic.net/zd/zi/ZdicE5Zdic95Zdic8A.htm

[Patrick_ChineseForum]

Thank you everyone for responding. LaoJian, your answer was truly amazing! When I was reading your answer, I recalled those variations of the 啊 sounds. You were exactly right about different tones of 啊 representing different meanings. The light bulb suddenly popped up on my head after reading your answer. You must be a real Chinese to know all the details about this 啊 character (you look Chinese in your Avatar :-) hee hee

Thanks again, my IQ has increased a bit after learning this. ^_^

[realmayo]

How about in lists too? If someone's reeling off a list I often hear 啊 where I'd expect to see a comma in the written version. Not sure if this is simply to aid the listener's comprension, or to add emphasis.

[navaburo]

I think that sentence particles like "啊" are very important to proper speaking / understanding a spoken language. The reason that it is such a mystery to students of Chinese I think indicates that MSL (mandarin as a second language) is an underdeveloped field. (That means there is still work to be done! Hurrah!)

Contrast with JSL, where well-thought-out courses often start with a discussion of sentence particles ka, yo, nêe, and their various intonational variants.

(We find sentence-final particles in other languages too... English has 'man', 'right', 'no?'; French has 'quoi', 'va'; German has the ubiquitous 'na'. --- Except for JSL, I've seen precious little discussion of these (important!) aspects of spoken language. Maybe this is because we rarely find these in serious writing or even transcripts.)

[Patrick_ChineseForum]

Navaburo, nice observation! Yes I remember when I was learning Japanese, I used to wonder why sometime Japanese added those sounds at the end of the sentenses. However their usage was more clear compared to 啊. You can't go around and drop those Japanese particles anywhere in the sentences like you do with 啊. IMHO 啊 is a very flexible word. It's almost as flexible as the word "f**king" in English.

[kari]

I like to put 啊 on the end of almost anything. ^^

[LaoJian]

Thank you everyone for responding. LaoJian, your answer was truly amazing! When I was reading your answer, I recalled those variations of the 啊 sounds. You were exactly right about different tones of 啊 representing different meanings. The light bulb suddenly popped up on my head after reading your answer. You must be a real Chinese to know all the details about this 啊 character (you look Chinese in your Avatar :-) hee hee

I'm flattered~ . you bet, I'm indigenous Beijinger, what I wrote is based on my experience.