<p>I think all the sentences with 几 above can turn into interrogative sentences. For example:</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>后面有几个人笑起来了? </p>
  
  <p>你家有几口人?</p>
  
  <p>上海有几个火车站?</p>
</blockquote>

<p>In the mainland mandarin, we usually put 好 in front of 几 in the declarative sentence to indicate that there are more than one. For example:</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>后面有(好)几个人笑起来了。// 好 can be omitted without changing the meaning.</p>
  
  <p>你家有好几口人。// 好 can not be omitted</p>
  
  <p>上海有好几个火车站。// 好 can not be omitted</p>
</blockquote>

<p>With 好，you can differentiate if it's a declarative or interrogative sentence.  In some sentences (like the first one above), 好 is omissible. You'd better not omit 好 in the sentence 2 and 3, otherwise they would sound like interrogative sentences. </p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-01-17T12:08:52.777Z
2018-01-17T12:08:52.777Z
dan
<h2>There is a way for distinction: intonation</h2>

<p>As stated by the OP, the meaning is clear once we know whether the sentence is <em>declarative</em> or a <em>question</em>. The key point about identifying the sentence type in a conversation, other than the context, is intonation.</p>

<p><strong>Example:</strong></p>

<p>I asked a friend who is a native speaker of mandarin (from Shanghai) to pronounce the following sentences:</p>

<ol>
<li>那里有几个人? (How many people is there?)</li>
</ol>

<p><a href="https://soundcloud.com/user-169031882/k0n1e11edws0?in=user-169031882/sets/chinese-intonation-difference" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://soundcloud.com/user-169031882/k0n1e11edws0?in=user-169031882/sets/chinese-intonation-difference</a></p>

<ol start="2">
<li>那里有几个人. (There are a few people.)</li>
</ol>

<p><a href="https://soundcloud.com/user-169031882/kc4x4i2w6psc?in=user-169031882/sets/chinese-intonation-difference" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://soundcloud.com/user-169031882/kc4x4i2w6psc?in=user-169031882/sets/chinese-intonation-difference</a></p>

<p>He argued in the <strong>interrogative</strong> sentence he stressed the question word <strong>几</strong>, while in the <strong>declarative</strong> sentence, he stressed the object <strong>人</strong>.</p>

<hr>

<h2>General discussion: declarative vs question intonation</h2>

<p>Apart from <em>lexical tones</em>, mandarin chinese like most languages has a <em>sentence intonation</em>. Sentence intonation can be thought of the overlaying tune of the sentence, with fluctuations given by the lexical tones [1]. Surprisingly, the study of sentence intonation and its interaction with the lexical tones is a complex topic, which is still active in linguistics research.</p>

<p><em>Wh-words</em>, the interrogative words such as <em>shénme</em> 什么, <em>shéi</em> 谁 or <em>jǐ</em> 几 can sometimes be ambiguous between a declarative and question interpretation. This is precisely the topic of study of an article from last month [2]. Considering sentences like the example I gave above for wh-words, they studied the intonation of the interrogative vs declarative sentences, and found the following results:</p>

<ul>
<li>Questions are spoken faster than declarations.</li>
<li>Questions have more 'focus' in the wh-words (as my friend said): with a longer duration, a steep pitch rise and a stronger volume change (what is called intensity range).</li>
<li>Questions usually maintain the pitch raised at the wh-word until the end of the sentence.</li>
<li>Declarations have more focus at the verb and wh-words are instead largely suppressed with an almost flat pitch, a short duration and a small volume change.</li>
</ul>

<p>[1] Crosswhite, K. M., &amp; McDonough, J. (2000). Comparison of intonation patters in Mandarine and English for a particular Speaker. University of Rochester Working Papers in the Language Science, 1, 24-55.</p>

<p>[2] Yang, Y., Gryllia, S., &amp; Cheng, L. L. S. (2020). Wh-question or wh-declarative? Prosody makes the difference. Speech Communication, 118, 21-32 (see <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167639319301244" rel="nofollow noreferrer">link</a>).</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-05-18T17:48:08.767Z
I asked myself this question a while ago and asked some native speakers to read two sentences aloud. They were: 1) 出去了几个人。2)出去了几个人？I came to similar conclusions as in this answer. However I didn't notice a difference in speed. For the 'focus' observation (points #2, #4 in the answer) I think it could be useful to think of it as the neutral tone (轻声) being used for the "declarative" case, and not being used in the "question" case.
goPlayerJuggler
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-05-18T18:18:13.450Z
@goPlayerJuggler Actually you are right, the difference in speed they found in the article is not much, around 1.5% of the duration. For a sentence of 12 syllables, the declarative sentence took around 2,05 s and the question around 2,02 s. If you check the article they also have very nice plots, they were quite informative (though by copyright reasons I couldn't use them on the answer).
Puco4
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-05-17T20:36:43.723Z
2020-05-17T23:12:56.873Z
2020-05-17T23:12:56.873Z
Puco4
<p>'<strong>几</strong>' in '你家有<strong>几</strong>个人?' means '<strong>几多</strong>个人'(<strong>how many</strong> people?)</p>

<p>'<strong>几</strong>' in '后面有<strong>几</strong>个人笑起来了' just means '<strong>few</strong>'</p>

<p>几 is 'declarative' (few/ several) when the sentence ends with a period; and it is 'interrogative' (how many) when the sentence ends with a question mark</p>

<p>去了几次. (went there a few times.)  </p>

<p>去了几次? (went there how many times?)</p>

<p>'interrogative' sentence  is always in question form, end with a question mark, including rhetorical question.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-01-16T11:02:10.393Z
What about speach? No one says "后面有几个人笑起来了问号"
Ivan Gerasimenko
CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-01-16T11:11:28.680Z
It should be "后面有几(多)个人笑起来了?"  Some people might choose to omit  '多' but that make it less colloquial and more literary. Let me give you a literary sentence example , '知己有几(多个)人?' should always ends with a question mark. and (多个) is always omitted
Tang Ho
CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-01-16T13:17:14.977Z
wikipedia：the concept of modern standard punctuation was adapted in the written language during the 20th century from Western punctuation marks，also Chinese subtitles have none
user6065
CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-01-16T14:28:13.107Z
Would it be safe to say that in ambiguous situations you can add clarity either by including '?' or 多?
Josh Gagnon
CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-01-17T11:33:24.267Z
知己有几多个人 sounds very odd to my ear. I'd say 知己有几(个)人.
dan
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-06-18T07:39:36.500Z
@TangHo When your two sample sentences (1: “去了几次。”; 2: “去了几次？”) are spoken aloud, should there be an difference in pronunciation? I wouldn’t be surprised if the answer to this is something along the lines of: “Yes. in ‘去了几次。’, the 几 is unstressed/has neutral tone; in ‘去了几次?’, the 几 has some degree of stress/has third tone”. (Seee https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_Chinese_phonology#Full_and_weak_syllables and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_Chinese_phonology#Stress,_rhythm_and_intonation for some discussion of stress and neutral tone - it seems to be a complex topic.)
goPlayerJuggler
CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-01-16T10:57:08.170Z
2018-01-16T11:14:56.213Z
2018-01-16T11:14:56.213Z
Tang Ho
<p>几 has two meanings: &quot;several&quot; and &quot;how many?&quot; But I have no clear understanding of separation one from another. E.g.:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>后面有几个人笑起来了. - <em>declarative</em></p>
<p>你家有几口人? - <em>interrogative</em></p>
</blockquote>
<p>I know that the first sentence is declarative and the second one is interrogative but I don't know why. There is no difference in 几 usage here so why is the first sentence declarative?</p>
<blockquote>
<p>A few people laughed behind [us].</p>
<p><strong>And not interrogative:</strong> How many people laughed behind [us]?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>&quot;几个人&quot; could be as well &quot;a few people&quot; and &quot;how many people?&quot;, how to distinguish which one is used? (An example of interrogative sentence with &quot;几个人&quot; would be useful)</p>
<p>P.S.: please do not give explanation like &quot;后面有几个人笑起来了.&quot; is declarative because &quot;后面有多少人笑起来了?&quot; is interrogative. I also can say that in the case &quot;你家有几口人&quot; is declarative (&quot;There are some people in your family&quot;) because there is no &quot;多少人&quot;.</p>
<hr />
<p>Another example, you are speaking to a person and he says:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>上海有几个火车站(。/？)</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Only context can help you to understand whether it is a question or a declaration, right?</p>
<blockquote>
<p><em>(on the street)</em></p>
<p>请问, 上海有几个火车站(？) - <em>defenetely interrogative</em></p>
</blockquote>
<p>And:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>- 到火车站要10分钟, 不要着急。</p>
<p>- 上海有几个火车站(。)我去上海南站, 到那儿要半个小时。 - <em>declarative</em></p>
</blockquote>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-01-16T22:26:54.163Z
users note that 呢 often occurs at the end of certain types of interrogative sentences (alternative questions or those with interrogative pronouns (e.g. 几）），as a test search web with 几  呢：  
孩子移民的黄金时间是几岁呢？会计账户分为几类呢？会计账户分为几类呢？
user6065
<meaning><meaning-in-context><difference><pronunciation><spoken>
几 in declarative and interrogative sentence
# 几 in declarative and interrogative sentence

(Asked by: username_0 on 2018-01-16)

几 has two meanings: "several" and "how many?" But I have no clear understanding of separation one from another. E.g.:

> 后面有几个人笑起来了. - *declarative*
>
> 你家有几口人? - *interrogative*

I know that the first sentence is declarative and the second one is interrogative but I don't know why. There is no difference in 几 usage here so why is the first sentence declarative?

> A few people laughed behind [us].
>
> **And not interrogative:** How many people laughed behind [us]?

"几个人" could be as well "a few people" and "how many people?", how to distinguish which one is used? (An example of interrogative sentence with "几个人" would be useful)

P.S.: please do not give explanation like "后面有几个人笑起来了." is declarative because "后面有多少人笑起来了?" is interrogative. I also can say that in the case "你家有几口人" is declarative ("There are some people in your family") because there is no "多少人".

---

Another example, you are speaking to a person and he says:

> 上海有几个火车站(。/？)

Only context can help you to understand whether it is a question or a declaration, right?

> *(on the street)*
>
> 请问, 上海有几个火车站(？) - *defenetely interrogative*

And:

> - 到火车站要10分钟, 不要着急。
>
> - 上海有几个火车站(。)我去上海南站, 到那儿要半个小时。 - *declarative*

**Tags:** meaning, meaning-in-context, difference, pronunciation, spoken

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: users note that 呢 often occurs at the end of certain types of interrogative sentences (alternative questions or those with interrogative pronouns (e.g. 几）），as a test search web with 几  呢：   孩子移民的黄金时间是几岁呢？会计账户分为几类呢？会计账户分为几类呢？  

---

## 3 answers

### Answer by username_2 on 2018-01-17. Score: 3

I think all the sentences with 几 above can turn into interrogative sentences. For example:

> 后面有几个人笑起来了?
>
> 你家有几口人?
>
> 上海有几个火车站?

In the mainland mandarin, we usually put 好 in front of 几 in the declarative sentence to indicate that there are more than one. For example:

> 后面有(好)几个人笑起来了。// 好 can be omitted without changing the meaning.
>
> 你家有好几口人。// 好 can not be omitted
>
> 上海有好几个火车站。// 好 can not be omitted

With 好，you can differentiate if it's a declarative or interrogative sentence. In some sentences (like the first one above), 好 is omissible. You'd better not omit 好 in the sentence 2 and 3, otherwise they would sound like interrogative sentences.


---

### Answer by username_3 on 2020-05-17. Score: 2

## There is a way for distinction: intonation

As stated by the OP, the meaning is clear once we know whether the sentence is *declarative* or a *question*. The key point about identifying the sentence type in a conversation, other than the context, is intonation.

**Example:**

I asked a friend who is a native speaker of mandarin (from Shanghai) to pronounce the following sentences:

1. 那里有几个人? (How many people is there?)

<https://soundcloud.com/user-169031882/k0n1e11edws0?in=user-169031882/sets/chinese-intonation-difference>

2. 那里有几个人. (There are a few people.)

<https://soundcloud.com/user-169031882/kc4x4i2w6psc?in=user-169031882/sets/chinese-intonation-difference>

He argued in the **interrogative** sentence he stressed the question word **几**, while in the **declarative** sentence, he stressed the object **人**.

---

## General discussion: declarative vs question intonation

Apart from *lexical tones*, mandarin chinese like most languages has a *sentence intonation*. Sentence intonation can be thought of the overlaying tune of the sentence, with fluctuations given by the lexical tones [1]. Surprisingly, the study of sentence intonation and its interaction with the lexical tones is a complex topic, which is still active in linguistics research.

*Wh-words*, the interrogative words such as *shénme* 什么, *shéi* 谁 or *jǐ* 几 can sometimes be ambiguous between a declarative and question interpretation. This is precisely the topic of study of an article from last month [2]. Considering sentences like the example I gave above for wh-words, they studied the intonation of the interrogative vs declarative sentences, and found the following results:

* Questions are spoken faster than declarations.
* Questions have more 'focus' in the wh-words (as my friend said): with a longer duration, a steep pitch rise and a stronger volume change (what is called intensity range).
* Questions usually maintain the pitch raised at the wh-word until the end of the sentence.
* Declarations have more focus at the verb and wh-words are instead largely suppressed with an almost flat pitch, a short duration and a small volume change.

[1] Crosswhite, K. M., & McDonough, J. (2000). Comparison of intonation patters in Mandarine and English for a particular Speaker. University of Rochester Working Papers in the Language Science, 1, 24-55.

[2] Yang, Y., Gryllia, S., & Cheng, L. L. S. (2020). Wh-question or wh-declarative? Prosody makes the difference. Speech Communication, 118, 21-32 (see [link](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167639319301244)).

> **Comments:**
> **username_4**: I asked myself this question a while ago and asked some native speakers to read two sentences aloud. They were: 1) 出去了几个人。2)出去了几个人？I came to similar conclusions as in this answer. However I didn't notice a difference in speed. For the 'focus' observation (points #2, #4 in the answer) I think it could be useful to think of it as the neutral tone (轻声) being used for the "declarative" case, and not being used in the "question" case.  
> **username_3**: @username_4 Actually you are right, the difference in speed they found in the article is not much, around 1.5% of the duration. For a sentence of 12 syllables, the declarative sentence took around 2,05 s and the question around 2,02 s. If you check the article they also have very nice plots, they were quite informative (though by copyright reasons I couldn't use them on the answer).  

---

### Answer by username_5 on 2018-01-16. Score: 1

'**几**' in '你家有**几**个人?' means '**几多**个人'(**how many** people?)

'**几**' in '后面有**几**个人笑起来了' just means '**few**'

几 is 'declarative' (few/ several) when the sentence ends with a period; and it is 'interrogative' (how many) when the sentence ends with a question mark

去了几次. (went there a few times.)

去了几次? (went there how many times?)

'interrogative' sentence is always in question form, end with a question mark, including rhetorical question.

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: What about speach? No one says "后面有几个人笑起来了问号"  
> **username_5**: It should be "后面有几(多)个人笑起来了?"  Some people might choose to omit  '多' but that make it less colloquial and more literary. Let me give you a literary sentence example , '知己有几(多个)人?' should always ends with a question mark. and (多个) is always omitted  
> **username_1**: wikipedia：the concept of modern standard punctuation was adapted in the written language during the 20th century from Western punctuation marks，also Chinese subtitles have none  
> **username_6**: Would it be safe to say that in ambiguous situations you can add clarity either by including '?' or 多?  
> **username_2**: 知己有几多个人 sounds very odd to my ear. I'd say 知己有几(个)人.  
> **username_4**: @TangHo When your two sample sentences (1: “去了几次。”; 2: “去了几次？”) are spoken aloud, should there be an difference in pronunciation? I wouldn’t be surprised if the answer to this is something along the lines of: “Yes. in ‘去了几次。’, the 几 is unstressed/has neutral tone; in ‘去了几次?’, the 几 has some degree of stress/has third tone”. (Seee https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_Chinese_phonology#Full_and_weak_syllables and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_Chinese_phonology#Stress,_rhythm_and_intonation for some discussion of stress and neutral tone - it seems to be a complex topic.)  

---

