# 吗 / 么



## Staarkali

大家好,

"吗"和"么"什么不同?我的一个朋友经常用"么":在么?有么?...我问过他,他说这两个字的意思和用法差不多;我还不太确定. 真的一样吗?"可以说"你吃饭了么?""你好么?""你要来么?"等..


----------



## kirsitn

According to my dictionary, it seems they may be synonymous, but I don't know if they're interchangeable in all types of sentences. Personally I've only seen "吗" used in the examples that you gave, but I only know a little Mandarin, so hopefully a native speaker can clarify things for us.


----------



## ryuusaki

我认为吗和么的意思是差不多的，但是对我来讲，我觉得吗比较多用於书面语，而么比较多用於口语。我想你用哪一个都沒问题，因为人们都会明白的。


----------



## I_like_my_TV

吗 (ma) and 么 (ma) are basically the same thing but you'd see 吗 much more often. The 么 which is pronounced as /me/ and is part of 什么，怎么，etc. is of course a different 么.


----------



## avlee

The later 么 is a bit more colloquial and intimate. Basically, ther're the same thing.


----------



## Staarkali

thanks all, so I assume 么 is used in colloquial language 

By the way, I haven't found 么 read as ma in my various dictionaries, but as me and as yāo; is it confirmed? (sorry for asking that)


----------



## avlee

If 么 is read as ma, I believe it's for emphasizing, in this case most people would tend to write/use 吗 instead. Normally, people read that as me and as yao(which means the last). which you've already seen in the dictionaries.
(However, dictionaries or books are always trying to be correct and classical, thus, they would rather abandon some tiny trivialities on the languages to save argument. ) 
Another thing, common Chinese people seldom think too much about how to distinct these two characters. I guess we'd better have some tolerance while learning a language. Otherwise, you can never really set yourself free. 
BTW, your friend is right. And your understanding in using the words in those phrases is also correct. Trust yourself, mate!
PS: *ryuusaki*'s explanation in Chinese is exactly what I was thinking.


----------



## Staarkali

oki thanks for the tips  非常有用!!


----------



## ulcer

对,其实"吗"和"么"的意思差不多, 而"吗"一般来说用于书面, 但有时也会用"么",没有必要分的那么清楚, 都是一样的!


----------



## kareno999

Staarkali said:


> 大家好,
> 
> "吗"和"么"什么不同?我的一个朋友经常用"么":在么?有么?...我问过他,他说这两个字的意思和用法差不多;我还不太确定. 真的一样吗?"可以说"你吃饭了么?""你好么?""你要来么?"等..


 
It's almost the same. The consonant "m" is the most important part. The vowel "a" can be reduced to a schwa, and is written by someone as "么". 
I really doubt the character "么" exists in classical Chinese, nor "吗" of course. Few people pay much attention to the correct writing of such modal particles "吗""吧""嘛""啦"


----------



## epsilon

selon moi,ya pas de difference entre 吗 et 么, ils sont quasiment pareil au niveau sens. si tu veux, je dirais qu'il y a des gens qui préfèrent utiliser l'un que l'autre, c l'habitude de chacun. 

Mais faites attentions à des expressions fixe tel que ''pourkoi为什么" ou ''什么", où  on est obligé  d'utiliser  ''me'' mais pas ''ma'', sinon pour la plupart des cas, tous les deux marchent

Bon courage!!


----------



## epsilon

D'ailleur, chuis pas sûr que ''Ma'' soit plus formel que ''Me'' dans l'utilisation, je dirais plutot le contraire.  ca m'étonnerait si ya partout de ''Ma'' ds un doc officiel.  enfin bref.. c vraiment pas la pein de se prendre la tête avec ce genre de problème


----------



## univerio

In my opinion, 么 is more "rude" and used more often in casual speech. It is rarely written. However, I have seen books with it, and they are a bit old.


----------



## avlee

univerio said:


> In my opinion, 么 is more "rude" and used more often in casual speech. It is rarely written. However, I have seen books with it, and they are a bit old.


You are making things difficult, man.


----------



## univerio

Chinese is difficult...


----------



## NextNoName

The confusion is due to traditional versus simplified writing. Your friend must be not young and people like that tend to use traditional and simplified writing together without much care which is which. (On top of that in handwriting he would likely be writing in a cursive form, so exactness is not important to him. Just read some of the manuscripts of political figures and you will see how illegible they are.) That is if he is a Mainlander. If he is from Taiwan then naturally he will be more familiar with the traditional writing.

For simplified Chinese, 么 is only used in very few cases, e.g. 什么, 多么, 怎么, 这么. On the other hand 吗 has a different meaning, as was mentioned above. In traditional Chinese it is (also) written as 么 but pronounced the same way as 吗.

Simplified Chinese not only simplified some of the characters but also removed redundant or overlapping characters as well as some modifications (exactly what modifications I can't really list them, maybe Chinese experts can list them) to make Chinese more organized and systematic.


----------



## kareno999

Je crois que la syllabe "me" dans les mots "什么" ou "怎么" est juste un évidence, ou plutôt, un vestige des terminaisons syllabiques 'p'&'m' du chinois classique. 
Ces terminaisons existent toujours en Cantonais , mais pas en Mandarin.  
什&怎 se prononcent comme 'sep' et 'zem' en Cantonais(J'suis pas sûr, mais je les ai écoutés prononcer comme ça dans les chansons cantonaises). 
Et bien-sûr, c'est juste ma supposition.



epsilon said:


> selon moi,ya pas de difference entre 吗 et 么, ils sont quasiment pareil au niveau sens. si tu veux, je dirais qu'il y a des gens qui préfèrent utiliser l'un que l'autre, c l'habitude de chacun.
> 
> Mais faites attentions à des expressions fixe tel que ''pourkoi为什么" ou ''什么", où  on est obligé  d'utiliser  ''me'' mais pas ''ma'', sinon pour la plupart des cas, tous les deux marchent
> 
> Bon courage!!


----------



## zoe1225

我觉得按我们的习惯来说,"么"多用于陈述句,"吗"更多在问句中使用.基本上都说"你吃饭了吗?而不是"你吃饭了么".


----------



## sanshi34z

吗is more of a formal way to end a question. 么can end a sentence without making it a question, or at least makes a sentence sounds more informal, suggesting the relationship between the two person talking are casual.


----------



## eugenia4it

我觉得“么”是一种很随意的疑问词，特别适合短的疑问句，如在么，吃饭了么，语气比较轻，而且对答案也不是很在意。
而长一点的疑问句使用“吗”，而且以“？”问号结束，比较正式和礼貌，希望对方有个比较认真的回答。如“今天晚上你考虑好去那个舞会了吗？”


----------



## yuechu

> 么can end a sentence without making it a question


Does that mean then that 么 can be equivalent to both 吗 (for questions) and 嘛 (for statements)?


----------



## xiaolijie

baosheng said:


> Does that mean then that 么 can be equivalent to both 吗 (for questions) and 嘛 (for statements)?


When it is unofficial, anything goes!


----------



## Daniela.w

吗 can be changed with 么


----------



## hkenneth

吗 is formal, 么/咩 is colloquial


----------



## lyx1692

我觉得意思差不多，可能更多是个人的表达习惯问题。


----------



## hcy300300

I agree with 16#


----------

