Questions with 吗

Q: What are common mistakes with Questions with 吗?

A common error is saying "吗你是学生？" when the correct form is "你是学生吗？". 吗 must always go at the END of the sentence. It is a sentence-final particle. A common error is saying "你是不是学生吗？" when the correct form is "你是学生吗？ or 你是不是学生？". Do not combine 吗 with the verb-not-verb (是不是) pattern. They are two separate question forms — pick one. A common error is saying "你喜欢什么吗？" when the correct form is "你喜欢什么？". Do not use 吗 together with question words like 什么, 谁, or 哪里. Question words already make the sentence a question.

吗 question particle

TL;DR

Add the particle 吗 (ma) to the end of any statement to turn it into a yes/no question. No change in word order is needed.

By RJ Murray, Founder, HSK Lord · Updated February 2026

Pattern

Statement + 吗？

Explanation

Forming yes/no questions in Chinese is remarkably simple: take any statement and add 吗 (ma) at the end. The word order stays exactly the same. "你是学生" (nǐ shì xuéshēng, "You are a student") becomes "你是学生吗？" (nǐ shì xuéshēng ma, "Are you a student?"). That is the entire rule.

To answer a 吗 question, you do not say "yes" or "no" the way English does. Instead, you repeat the verb to affirm, or say 不 (bù) plus the verb to deny. For example, if someone asks "你喜欢咖啡吗？" (Do you like coffee?), you answer "喜欢" (like = yes) or "不喜欢" (don't like = no). For 有 questions, the negative answer uses 没有 instead of 不有.

One important rule: do not combine 吗 with the verb-not-verb question form (like 是不是). These are two separate ways of asking yes/no questions and should not be mixed in the same sentence. Use one or the other.