吗 and 呢 — the two easiest question particles
Add 吗 to the end of any statement to turn it into a yes/no question: 你是学生吗？ Add 呢 to bounce a question back or ask "where is…?": 我很好，你呢？ Word order never changes.
Structure
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Statement + 吗？
Yes/no question — nothing else moves.
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Noun + 呢？
"And you?" / "What about X?" / "Where is X?"
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Answer: repeat the verb, or 不 + verb
Chinese has no bare "yes" or "no".
How it works
This is the least work any language asks of you to form a question. Take a statement, stick 吗 on the end, and you are done. 你是学生。 → 你是学生吗？ No inversion, no auxiliary "do", no intonation requirement.
To answer, Chinese does not use a word for "yes". You repeat the verb: 你去吗？ → 去。 (Yes.) / 不去。 (No.) With 是 questions, 是的 and 不是 do the job.
呢 has two everyday uses. It bounces a question back without repeating it — 我很好，你呢？ (I'm fine, and you?) — and it asks where something is when the context is obvious: 我的手机呢？ (Where's my phone?).
Never combine the two. 吗 is already the question; adding 呢 after it is ungrammatical. And do not add 吗 to a question that already contains a question word — see question words.
Examples
Quick drill — 5 questions
Five fill-in-the-gap questions built from the example sentences above. No sign-up, no score kept — just a check that the pattern has actually landed.
Choose the word that belongs in the gap:
Common mistakes
| ✗ Wrong | ✓ Right | Why |
|---|---|---|
| 你去哪儿吗？ | 你去哪儿？ | 哪儿 is already a question word. One question marker per sentence. |
| 是你去吗？ | 你去吗？ | Chinese does not invert or add a helper verb. The statement stays exactly as it was. |
| 你好吗呢？ | 你好吗？ | 吗 and 呢 never stack. |
吗 and 呢 questions — frequently asked questions
How do you ask a yes/no question in Chinese?
Put 吗 (ma) at the end of a statement and change nothing else: 你是学生 (you are a student) → 你是学生吗？ (are you a student?). There is no inversion and no equivalent of English "do".
How do you say yes and no in Chinese?
Chinese has no all-purpose yes or no. You repeat the verb of the question: 你去吗？ → 去 (yes) / 不去 (no). For 是 questions, answer 是的 or 不是. 对 (duì, correct) also works as a general "yes, that's right".
What does 呢 mean at the end of a sentence?
Two things. After a noun it bounces a question back — 我很好，你呢？ (I'm fine, and you?). On its own with a noun it asks where something is — 我的钥匙呢？ (Where are my keys?).
Can you use 吗 and a question word together?
No. 哪儿, 什么, 谁 and the other question words already make the sentence a question, so adding 吗 is ungrammatical. 你去哪儿？ is correct; 你去哪儿吗？ is not.
Next, learn
Put it to work
Drill the vocabulary for this level on the HSK 1 word list, rebuild scrambled sentences in the Sentence Builder, read graded stories that use this pattern in the story library, or follow a step-by-step route through the whole site in Guided Learning Paths.