Yesterday I found someone who says “question mark” after every question and has apparently forgotten how to inflect their voice to express tone. It was horrifying, but I realized I’m not that different. I immediately think “cringe” or “based” at many things. Even when I’m not terminally online everything I hear gets put on a meme template by my brain. I’m having trouble expressing tone/emotion in writing without visual indicators like emojis or “/s.” I know I’m not alone, what do we do?
Saying “question mark” out loud is actually a really good habit if you’re trying to get into Mandarin
Is it, ma
It’s more like ending a sentence with “Yeah?” or “Right?”, Yeah?
Ah, so quite a punchy way of asking a question? I never got too far with my Mandarin, so didn’t learn many subtlties.
No, as in it doesn’t require you to rearrange the structure of the sentence you’re turning into a question. “Is it ma” vs “It is ma”
Most direct translations do come off as punchy though, like instead of “What do you do for work?” you’d use “You do what for work?”
Oh, I see. Thanks for explaining this.