A1
請 and 吧 — asking nicely
How to make a request in Chinese without sounding blunt — 請 in front, 吧 at the end, 一下 after the verb — and why 吧 and 嗎 can never appear together.
Chinese has no imperative form, because it does not need one: a verb with no subject is already a command. 坐 is sit. That is blunt in any language, and Chinese has three light ways to soften it.
請 — please
Goes in front of the verb, exactly where please goes in English.
請坐。
Qǐng zuò.
Please sit down.
請等一下。
Qǐng děng yíxià.
Please wait a moment.
請 is more formal than English please and appears less often in casual speech between friends. It is right with strangers, in shops and in writing, and never wrong.
一下 — just a moment of it
Added after the verb, 一下 makes the request small. It is the most useful softener there is and it is used constantly.
看一下。
Kàn yíxià.
Have a quick look.
幫我一下。
Bāng wǒ yíxià.
Give me a hand.
It does not really mean once or one second. It means this is a small thing I am asking, and dropping it is what makes a beginner’s Chinese sound abrupt when every individual word was polite.
吧 — let’s, shall we, go on then
At the end of a sentence, 吧 turns an instruction into a suggestion. Same words, entirely different temperature.
我們走吧。
Wǒmen zǒu ba.
Let’s go.
你休息吧。
Nǐ xiūxi ba.
Get some rest.
吧 is toneless. It is doing what English does with intonation and tag questions, which is why it is hard to translate and easy to use.
吧 also asks for confirmation
On a statement you are fairly sure of, 吧 invites agreement — the isn’t it? of Chinese.
你是老師吧？
Nǐ shì lǎoshī ba?
You’re a teacher, aren’t you?
The difference from 嗎 is what you already believe. 你是老師嗎 is a genuine question; 你是老師吧 says you think so and would like it confirmed.
你走吧嗎？
你走吧？
吧 and 嗎 are both sentence-final particles and only one can hold that position. They also want opposite things — 嗎 asks openly, 吧 assumes — so the sentence would be self-contradicting even if it fitted.
Saying no to a request
不用 is the useful one: no need, and it declines an offer without refusing a person.
不用了，謝謝。
Bú yòng le, xièxie.
No thanks, I’m fine.