Make a yes-no question: Ni shi laoshi.

Ni shi laoshi ma?. Add ma at the end and keep the word order.

Explain the role of ma questions in one sentence.

Learn how ma turns Mandarin statements into yes-no questions.. Being able to explain the pattern briefly makes it easier to notice and produce in new sentences.

Create one new sentence using the same pattern.

Answers vary.. Keep the sentence short. Accuracy matters more than length when a grammar point is new.

Mandarin Ma Questions Practice Exercises

Practise ma questions with quick prompts before moving into the free interactive game.

About the author

Luke McLaughlin created Constructing Language after living in Japan and later learning Mandarin Chinese from scratch. The lessons, games, and guides are built from that first-hand learner experience and checked against native-speaker course work with Hiro for Japanese and Xiang for Mandarin Chinese.

Lived in Japan and studied Japanese through immersion and structured self-study.
Learned Mandarin Chinese from scratch as an adult learner.
Created the Construction Method: audio-first sentence building, grammar graphics, and active recall.
Built Japanese course material with Hiro and Mandarin course material with Xiang, both native-speaker collaborators.

About Luke McLaughlin The Construction Method

What this exercise trains

Ma is a sentence-final question particle. Add it to a statement to ask whether the statement is true. The word order usually stays the same.

Ni shi xuesheng means you are a student.
Ni shi xuesheng ma asks are you a student?
Do not move the verb to the front as in English.

Practice sequence

Answer the sample prompt, explain the grammar role in your own words, then repeat the pattern with a new noun, verb, time word, or location.

Practise Mandarin questions