<p>I'm not a native speaker at all, nor am I fluent in Chinese (so anyone please feel free to correct me on this), but as someone who is bilingual I would say that this applies to most languages that use filler words-</p>
<p>Depending on what mood someone is in, they can tend to use these words more at the start/end of a sentence to really express how they are feeling. For example, with emotions such as excitement or exasperation, these are more intense/extreme emotions which may lead to more intense reactions, using 'sounds' to express emotion rather than specific sentences, as opposed to emotions like just happiness or mild annoyance.
It could also depend on the region you are in, in certain dialects these filler words are used more than others probably just due to the culture of the area.</p>
<p>Therefore, I don't think there is a specific set of rules as to how often filler words should be used, in my experience it's a bit like saying &quot;Come onnnnn&quot; or &quot;Heyyyyyyyy&quot; in English (the elongation of the last syllable/letter creates an effect depending on the tone it is said in) so maybe just go with what feels right to you and reflects the tone in which you would normally speak. But again, please feel free to correct me as I am definitely not an expert in this.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-06-25T20:26:20.757Z
2024-06-25T20:26:20.757Z
Olivia
<p>Here are a few examples of when and how to use these 語助詞(an auxiliary word that indicates mood) at the end of a sentence/phrase.</p>
<p><strong>&quot;咧&quot;</strong> is similar to “了”、“啦” - 好咧！別哭咧!. It is used less frequently than the rest of the words in the list.</p>
<p><strong>&quot;啊/呀&quot;</strong> is used when,</p>
<ul>
<li>expressing agreement/disagreement - 好啊/呀; 我(不想)去啊/呀; 沒聽/去過啊/呀</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>&quot;吧&quot;</strong> is used when,</p>
<ul>
<li><p>giving order or pledging - (快)去/走吧!</p>
</li>
<li><p>agreeing with reluctance - 好吧! 就聽你的吧/看看再說吧.</p>
</li>
<li><p>questioning with a degree of certainty - 你沒去過吧?! 你(不)喜歡她吧?!</p>
</li>
</ul>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-06-25T20:10:14.710Z
2024-06-25T20:10:14.710Z
r13
<p>I am a linguistically oriented intermediate/advanced learner, so interpret my comments in that light and look for correction from native or more fluent speakers.</p>
<p>Overall, I think sentence-final particles are more frequent in Chinese than in English because English uses different word order overall and tends to rely on other speech strategies more, such as intonation or short content words or phrases used to indicate tone.</p>
<p>Chinese has a repertoire of sentence final particles that are not easily translated to English on a one-to-one bases.  Occasionally, a few are necessary grammatically (e.g., 我把车卖*[了] and 好着*[呢], where the final particles are required).  A larger number of particles may be necessary to convey the semantics desired (e.g., 吧 often softens &quot;commands&quot; into &quot;suggestions&quot;) without affecting the syntax.</p>
<p>All sentence final particles in Chinese can be used to change the tone of a sentence, sometimes slightly, sometimes drastically; however, this function is shared by other speech strategies.  The particles interact with intonation and other words to communicate what the speakers wants.  Because of this interaction, they are hard to define in isolation.</p>
<p>For example, sentences containing 了 are often rated in surveys as having a friendlier tone than sentences without.  For example, 你几岁了? sounds friendlier than 你几岁?.  But it would be misleading to think that 了 expresses friendliness by itself.  What it does in this sentence is express that you are considering the addressee's progress through life, rather than just asking for a piece of isolated personal data.  On the other hand, if you say 好了, rather than just 好, this often expresses the difference between saying &quot;okay, okay!&quot; and just &quot;okay.&quot;  Here, using 了 often expresses your feeling that the situation should change from what the addressee is thinking.  In other words, you cannot just sprinkle 了 at the end of random sentences to express a friendly tone.</p>
<p>The repertoire of particles a speaker uses to express tone and the frequency of use will vary from dialect to dialect, from person to person, and from mood to mood.  This is true in English as well.  Many particles are going to be more common in animated speech between close friends and rarer in interactions with strangers.</p>
<p>I think the only way to learn them is to have a vague idea of their core meaning and then to try to copy the speech of the people you interact with and note the situations in which they are used.  For instance, I think using 啊 generally expresses a greater emotional commitment to what is being said, but depending on the sentence, the emotion expressed can be such things as enthusiasm (e.g., 好啊! Well done!), impatience (e.g., 快走啊！Come on, hurry up!), eagerness for confirmation to a question, or even how extensive a list is.</p>
<p>A beginner/intermediate learner should work on getting a decent grasp of 了，呢，吗，吧.  There is a frequent semantic need to use these particles to accomplish certain conversational goals.  An intermediate/advanced learner can branch out to using 啊/呀，啦，嘛，呗, which can help express your tone even more.  I think only advanced speakers need worry about using particles like 咧, 哩, 呃.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-07-01T21:06:17.897Z
Excellent presentation for an intermediate learner! You may want to add 喔哦呦哇噢 to your list too :) Just watch out many of the expressions are prevalent in certain locals.
r13
CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-07-02T04:14:14.673Z
Quote: "-rated in surveys as having a friendlier tone than sentences without. For example, 你几岁了? sounds friendlier than 你几岁?. But it would be misleading to think that 了 expresses friendliness by itself" Actually in a certain context this 了 expresses sarcasm, even overt disapproval. E.g., say, a 50 year old man throwing tantrums like a spoiled teenager, a bystander may ask, 你几岁了? (hidden meaning being that this 50 year old is not acting his age) especially when the person enquiring already knows the age. So, context too dictates the subtle underlying tone, implied meaning / message conveyed.
Wayne Cheah
CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-07-02T15:29:11.080Z
I just realized that I wrote "can" where I meant "cannot" with regard to sprinkling 了 at the end of sentences and have corrected it.
Vegawatcher
CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-07-03T08:06:28.810Z
Just to make sure I understand,  好着呢 is read as hǎozhene, meaning "it's fine"? (I got a little confused as dictionaries also give hǎozhāo / "good idea!")
goPlayerJuggler
CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-08-19T19:39:41.967Z
Yes, 好着呢 is read as hǎozhene.  Apparently, 好着 hǎozhe alone is ungrammatical.  My working theory is that part of the semantics of the particle 着 zhe is that it refers to a backgrounded situation and so is unacceptable if used with no other assertion.  Part of the semantics of  呢 is to refer to a larger context, and so using 呢 ne in this case rescues the semantics of 着 zhe by putting the "background" in a larger context.  Leaving a meaning like: "Things have been going okay (during the time you mentioned)."
Vegawatcher
CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-07-01T19:56:41.240Z
2024-07-02T15:28:00.287Z
2024-07-02T15:28:00.287Z
Vegawatcher
<p>It seems like adding these (咧, 啊, 吧, 呀) at the end of sentences is how a lot of native speakers communicate.</p>
<p>As someone who's trying to sound as accurate as possible, would adding these of most sentences be appropriate? Context is street-level communication, not in a professional setting.</p>
<p>I have found some explanation of when to use which ones, but I hear them being used often, in cases where the explanation doesn't fit.</p>
<p>Are there hard rules about when to use them?</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-06-25T16:35:52.243Z
If you think Mandarin final particles are difficult to master, Cantonese final particles are much more vast and complex.
Tang Ho
<particles>
How often are the use of particles like 咧, 啊, 吧, 呀 supposed to be used?
# How often are the use of particles like 咧, 啊, 吧, 呀 supposed to be used?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2024-06-25)

It seems like adding these (咧, 啊, 吧, 呀) at the end of sentences is how a lot of native speakers communicate.

As someone who's trying to sound as accurate as possible, would adding these of most sentences be appropriate? Context is street-level communication, not in a professional setting.

I have found some explanation of when to use which ones, but I hear them being used often, in cases where the explanation doesn't fit.

Are there hard rules about when to use them?

**Tags:** particles

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: If you think Mandarin final particles are difficult to master, Cantonese final particles are much more vast and complex.  

---

## 3 answers

### Answer by username_4 on 2024-07-01. Score: 5 | Accepted answer

I am a linguistically oriented intermediate/advanced learner, so interpret my comments in that light and look for correction from native or more fluent speakers.

Overall, I think sentence-final particles are more frequent in Chinese than in English because English uses different word order overall and tends to rely on other speech strategies more, such as intonation or short content words or phrases used to indicate tone.

Chinese has a repertoire of sentence final particles that are not easily translated to English on a one-to-one bases. Occasionally, a few are necessary grammatically (e.g., 我把车卖\*[了] and 好着\*[呢], where the final particles are required). A larger number of particles may be necessary to convey the semantics desired (e.g., 吧 often softens "commands" into "suggestions") without affecting the syntax.

All sentence final particles in Chinese can be used to change the tone of a sentence, sometimes slightly, sometimes drastically; however, this function is shared by other speech strategies. The particles interact with intonation and other words to communicate what the speakers wants. Because of this interaction, they are hard to define in isolation.

For example, sentences containing 了 are often rated in surveys as having a friendlier tone than sentences without. For example, 你几岁了? sounds friendlier than 你几岁?. But it would be misleading to think that 了 expresses friendliness by itself. What it does in this sentence is express that you are considering the addressee's progress through life, rather than just asking for a piece of isolated personal data. On the other hand, if you say 好了, rather than just 好, this often expresses the difference between saying "okay, okay!" and just "okay." Here, using 了 often expresses your feeling that the situation should change from what the addressee is thinking. In other words, you cannot just sprinkle 了 at the end of random sentences to express a friendly tone.

The repertoire of particles a speaker uses to express tone and the frequency of use will vary from dialect to dialect, from person to person, and from mood to mood. This is true in English as well. Many particles are going to be more common in animated speech between close friends and rarer in interactions with strangers.

I think the only way to learn them is to have a vague idea of their core meaning and then to try to copy the speech of the people you interact with and note the situations in which they are used. For instance, I think using 啊 generally expresses a greater emotional commitment to what is being said, but depending on the sentence, the emotion expressed can be such things as enthusiasm (e.g., 好啊! Well done!), impatience (e.g., 快走啊！Come on, hurry up!), eagerness for confirmation to a question, or even how extensive a list is.

A beginner/intermediate learner should work on getting a decent grasp of 了，呢，吗，吧. There is a frequent semantic need to use these particles to accomplish certain conversational goals. An intermediate/advanced learner can branch out to using 啊/呀，啦，嘛，呗, which can help express your tone even more. I think only advanced speakers need worry about using particles like 咧, 哩, 呃.

> **Comments:**
> **username_3**: Excellent presentation for an intermediate learner! You may want to add 喔哦呦哇噢 to your list too :) Just watch out many of the expressions are prevalent in certain locals.  
> **username_5**: Quote: "-rated in surveys as having a friendlier tone than sentences without. For example, 你几岁了? sounds friendlier than 你几岁?. But it would be misleading to think that 了 expresses friendliness by itself" Actually in a certain context this 了 expresses sarcasm, even overt disapproval. E.g., say, a 50 year old man throwing tantrums like a spoiled teenager, a bystander may ask, 你几岁了? (hidden meaning being that this 50 year old is not acting his age) especially when the person enquiring already knows the age. So, context too dictates the subtle underlying tone, implied meaning / message conveyed.  
> **username_4**: I just realized that I wrote "can" where I meant "cannot" with regard to sprinkling 了 at the end of sentences and have corrected it.  
> **username_6**: Just to make sure I understand,  好着呢 is read as hǎozhene, meaning "it's fine"? (I got a little confused as dictionaries also give hǎozhāo / "good idea!")  
> **username_4**: Yes, 好着呢 is read as hǎozhene.  Apparently, 好着 hǎozhe alone is ungrammatical.  My working theory is that part of the semantics of the particle 着 zhe is that it refers to a backgrounded situation and so is unacceptable if used with no other assertion.  Part of the semantics of  呢 is to refer to a larger context, and so using 呢 ne in this case rescues the semantics of 着 zhe by putting the "background" in a larger context.  Leaving a meaning like: "Things have been going okay (during the time you mentioned)."  

---

### Answer by username_2 on 2024-06-25. Score: 3

I'm not a native speaker at all, nor am I fluent in Chinese (so anyone please feel free to correct me on this), but as someone who is bilingual I would say that this applies to most languages that use filler words-

Depending on what mood someone is in, they can tend to use these words more at the start/end of a sentence to really express how they are feeling. For example, with emotions such as excitement or exasperation, these are more intense/extreme emotions which may lead to more intense reactions, using 'sounds' to express emotion rather than specific sentences, as opposed to emotions like just happiness or mild annoyance.
It could also depend on the region you are in, in certain dialects these filler words are used more than others probably just due to the culture of the area.

Therefore, I don't think there is a specific set of rules as to how often filler words should be used, in my experience it's a bit like saying "Come onnnnn" or "Heyyyyyyyy" in English (the elongation of the last syllable/letter creates an effect depending on the tone it is said in) so maybe just go with what feels right to you and reflects the tone in which you would normally speak. But again, please feel free to correct me as I am definitely not an expert in this.


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### Answer by username_3 on 2024-06-25. Score: 2

Here are a few examples of when and how to use these 語助詞(an auxiliary word that indicates mood) at the end of a sentence/phrase.

**"咧"** is similar to “了”、“啦” - 好咧！別哭咧!. It is used less frequently than the rest of the words in the list.

**"啊/呀"** is used when,

* expressing agreement/disagreement - 好啊/呀; 我(不想)去啊/呀; 沒聽/去過啊/呀

**"吧"** is used when,

* giving order or pledging - (快)去/走吧!
* agreeing with reluctance - 好吧! 就聽你的吧/看看再說吧.
* questioning with a degree of certainty - 你沒去過吧?! 你(不)喜歡她吧?!


---

