吗, 呢, 吧 End 3,104 Bible Clauses
Answering: “how to ask a question in Chinese”
Updated 2026-09-26 · plain text · JSON
吗 turns a statement into a yes-or-no question, 呢 asks the same of a new subject or softens a follow-up, and 吧 makes a suggestion or an assumption. All three sit at the end and change nothing else.
- HSK level
- 1
- derived from its own words
- In the Bible
- 3,104
- clauses
- Meet it first in
- Job
- where it is commonest
- How sure
- Counted
- 100% of a checked sample
Practise it
Tap the words that carry the pattern.
，：「，！」
The same verses, in full
Easiest first: ranked by how much of each verse sits at or below HSK 1, the point’s own level. Colours are tones. Nothing here was written for the page — every line is in the text.
旁边páng biān站zhàn着zhe的de人rén，有的yǒu de听见tīng jiàn就jiù说shuō：「看kàn哪nǎ，他tā叫jiào以利亚yǐ lì yà呢ne！」
Some of those who stood by, when they heard it, said, “Behold, he is calling Elijah.”
Mark 15:35 · 93% of this verse’s words are at or below the point’s own HSK level
他们tā men对duì他tā说shuō：「你nǐ的de眼睛yǎn jing是shì怎么zěn me开kāi的de呢ne？」
They therefore were asking him, “How were your eyes opened?”
John 9:10 · 92% of this verse’s words are at or below the point’s own HSK level
你nǐ去qù对duì他们tā men说shuō：你们nǐ men回huí帐棚zhàng peng去qù吧ba！
“Go tell them, ‘Return to your tents.’
Deuteronomy 5:30 · 90% of this verse’s words are at or below the point’s own HSK level
耶稣yē sū说shuō：「不用bú yòng他们tā men去qù，你们nǐ men给gěi他们tā men吃chī吧ba！」
But Jesus said to them, “They don’t need to go away. You give them something to eat.”
Matthew 14:16 · 90% of this verse’s words are at or below the point’s own HSK level
我wǒ还hái在zài你们nǐ men那里nà li的de时候shí hou，曾céng把bǎ这些zhè xiē事shì告诉gào sù你们nǐ men，你们nǐ men不bú记得jì de吗ma？
Don’t you remember that when I was still with you, I told you these things?
2 Thessalonians 2:5 · 88% of this verse’s words are at or below the point’s own HSK level
就jiù对duì那nà人rén说shuō：「起来qǐ lái，走zǒu吧ba！你nǐ的de信xìn救jiù了le你nǐ了le。」
Then he said to him, “Get up, and go your way. Your faith has healed you.”
Luke 17:19 · 87% of this verse’s words are at or below the point’s own HSK level
Go and meet it in the text
- Read Mark 15 — where the first example above comes from, with every word tappable.
- The rest of HSK 1 grammar — the other points at this level, with their counts.
- The HSK 1 word deck — the vocabulary side, ordered by how often the Bible uses it.
What the Bible does with it
Chinese does not invert word order to ask a question. The statement stays exactly as it is and a particle is added at the end: 吗 for a yes-or-no question, 呢 for a follow-up or a softened one, 吧 for a suggestion or a supposition. For a reader coming from English this is the cheapest grammar in the language — one syllable, no rearrangement.
The Chinese Union Version (和合本, simplified) uses 吗 1,069 times, 呢 1,597 times, 吧 439 times. 1 of those occurrences are the same words doing something else.
The Bible's questions are mostly rhetorical, and 呢 carries most of them: 要到几时呢, how long? That is why 呢 outnumbers the plain 吗 here, which is the reverse of ordinary modern usage.
It is commonest in Job, with 243 of them, and 67% of all of them fall in the Old Testament — which is mostly a statement about length, since the Old Testament is the longer part of the book.
| Word | Reading | HSK | Occurrences |
|---|---|---|---|
| 吗 | ma | 1 | 1,068 |
| 吗 | má | 1 | 1 |
| 呢 | ne | 1 | 1,597 |
| 吧 | ba | 1 | 439 |
The HSK column is the level data/dict.json gives the word, and it is what puts this point at level 1.
| Occurrences | Share | |
|---|---|---|
| the construction | 3,104 | 100% |
| the same words doing something else | 1 | 0% |
| Book | Clauses |
|---|---|
| Job | 243 |
| Jeremiah | 216 |
| Matthew | 184 |
| Isaiah | 182 |
| Luke | 177 |
Counted from what the rule matched, before the audit — a ranking, not a published total.
Counted
The rule: 吗, 呢 or 吧 as the last word of its clause.
30 of 3,104 matches were drawn at random and read in context; 100% were right. Checked by Claude Opus 5, reading each sampled clause in context; not a native speaker. Recall is not measured: this is what the rule finds, not everything the translation contains.
This point is HSK 1 because that is the highest HSK level of the point's own function words, as data/dict.json grades them; a word the HSK lists do not grade sends the point to 'beyond'.
Questions
- What is the difference between 吗 and 呢?
- 吗 asks whether something is so and expects yes or no. 呢 asks about something already under discussion, or asks the same question of a new subject, and in the Bible it usually marks a question that is not really looking for an answer.
- How often does it occur in the Chinese Bible?
- 3,104 clauses in the Chinese Union Version (和合本, simplified), out of 3,105 occurrences of the words that mark it.
- Which book of the Bible uses it most?
- Job, with 243 — followed by Jeremiah (216), Matthew (184), Isaiah (182).
- How do you know the count is right?
- The rule is: 吗, 呢 or 吧 as the last word of its clause. 30 of its 3,104 matches were drawn at random and checked one by one; 100% were right. Recall is not measured, so the figure is what this rule finds, not everything the translation contains.
Related reference pages
Take it further
- 97 ready-made vocabulary decks — by HSK level, by book or by topic, exportable to Anki, Pleco or Quizlet.
- Printable 田字格 worksheets — passages with pinyin, meanings and tracing rows.
- The parallel reader — Chinese, pinyin and your own language side by side, every word tappable.
- The dataset behind these numbers — plain JSON, free to reuse with attribution.
How this was measured
Edition: Chinese Union Version (和合本, simplified). Every figure comes from one pass over all 1,189 chapters and 31,021 verses, 650,628word tokens in total, using the site’s own segmentation. A construction count is published only when a hand-checked sample of the rule that found it was at least 90% correct; between 70% and that it is published as an approximation, and below it no count is published at all. Generated 2026-09-26.