56 expressing speaker attitudes and perspectives
Mandarin uses interjections at the beginning of the sentence and syllables at the end of the
sentence (sentence final particles) to indicate the attitude of the speaker toward the situation
expressed in the sentence. Attitudes expressed by interjections and sentence final particles include
surprise, disgust, agreement, pity, etc.
Interjections and sentence final particles stand outside of the grammar of the sentence. Their omis-
sion or inclusion never affects the grammatical status of the sentence. However, their appropriate
use contributes to the naturalness of the sentence, making it sound more authentically Mandarin.
56.1 Interjections
Syllables serving as interjections always have tones. Here are some common interjections and
their associated meanings.
哈 hā satisfaction
哈哈！还是我对吧！
哈哈！還是我對吧！
Hā hā! Hái shì wǒ duì ba!
Well (ha), so I was right after all!
嗐 hài sorrow, regret
嗐，你怎么能跟这种人结婚？
嗐，你怎麼能跟這種人結婚？
Hài, nǐ zěnme néng gēn zhè zhǒng rén jiéhūn?
Why, how can you marry this kind of person?
啊 ā surprise
啊！他死了？
Ā! Tā sǐ le?
What? He passed away?
啊 á doubt, surprise
啊，你会说英文！
啊，你會說英文！
Á, nǐ huì shuō Yīngwén!
Oh! You speak English!
啊 ǎ puzzled surprise
啊，你把飞机票弄丢了？
啊，你把飛機票弄丟了？
Ǎ, nǐ bǎ fēijī piào nòngdiū le?
What! You lost your airplane ticket?
