Basic Grammar: all 87 lessons free
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不是……吗？ — Weren't You Supposed To…?
反问句「不是……吗？」— 你不是要减肥吗？
你不是要减肥吗？怎么又在喝奶茶？ A question that is not a question: 不是……吗 states what everyone knows and adds an eyebrow. The grammar of gentle outrage.
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Memory hook
不是 + known fact + 吗？ = a statement with an eyebrow
Weren't you…?
The deck's five, then the ones it asks you to build. Hear the two halves: the expectation in 不是……吗, the contradiction in 怎么.
Tap any line to hear it
A statement with an eyebrow挑着眉毛的陈述
No pressure — just making it stick.
你____要减肥吗？怎么又在喝奶茶？
Nǐ ____ Yào jiǎnféi ma? Zěnme yòu zài hē nǎichá?
Weren't you dieting? Why the milk tea again?
You are caught. Which reply fits?
Isn't it Monday? Why aren't you at work?
Tap the tiles in order — it checks itself when the sentence is complete. Tap a placed tile to take it back.
Your sentence
你不是要去泰国旅游吗？怎么____去？
Nǐ bú shì yào qù Tàiguó lǚyóu ma? Zěnme ____ Qù?
Weren't you going to Thailand? Still not gone?
Your turn — say it
你不是中国人吗？
Aren't you Chinese?
你不是困了吗？怎么____没睡？
Nǐ bú shì kùn le ma? Zěnme ____ Méi shuì?
Weren't you sleepy? Still up?
Rewrite each fact as a 不是……吗 question — pick the missing piece.
Tap a word to fill the next gap; tap a filled sentence to clear it. Every word is used once.
Word bank
0/5Caught out, in pictures看图抓包
No pressure — just making it stick.
Four things people get caught doing in the deck. Match each picture, then say the 不是……吗 line.
Tap a picture, then choose its word. Picked wrong? Tap that picture and choose again. Match all the cards to finish.
Your turn — say it
你不是要减肥吗？怎么又在喝奶茶？
Weren't you dieting? Why the milk tea again?
Isn't he handsome? Why no girlfriend?
Tap the tiles in order — it checks itself when the sentence is complete. Tap a placed tile to take it back.
Your sentence
Your turn — say it
我不是要早睡吗？怎么又十二点了？
Wasn't I going to bed early? How is it midnight again?
This lesson's characters
Three from the things people get caught doing: the diet, the again, and the mahjong.
to reduce, to subtract
形meaning + sound
Water 氵 in the old form, ice 冫 now, with 咸 for the sound: water going down — to decrease. 减 is minus in arithmetic, and 减肥, 'reduce fat', is to diet — the promise every 不是……吗 in this lesson comes back to. 减价 is a price cut; 减肥 is the one nobody keeps.
again (already happened); a hand
象drawn from life
A right hand with three fingers — the oldest 又 is a hand, and it still is inside 友 (two hands) and 对. On its own it came to mean 'again' for things that have already repeated: 怎么又在喝奶茶 — milk tea again. Keep it apart from 再: 再 is again in the future, 又 is again that already happened.
hemp; numb; (麻将) mahjong
会two ideas joined
Two stalks 林 hanging under a shed roof 广: hemp, drying. Hemp fibre is rough and makes the skin tingle — so 麻 became numb, and 麻辣 is the numbing-spicy of Sichuan pepper. 麻将 is mahjong, the game of clacking tiles played at every Chinese family gathering, and 你不是没钱了吗？怎么又在打麻将？ is the sentence that ends one.
Take these with you
Everything worth taking away. Tap any line to hear it.
Words 生词
Characters 汉字
Before you go课后回顾
- Catch yourself once tonight: 我不是要……吗？怎么又……？ Say it with a laugh — that is how Chinese people say it.
- Pair the two frames until they come together automatically: 不是……吗 for the expectation, 怎么 for the surprise. They were made for each other.
- Keep 又 and 再 apart in your head: 又在喝 has already happened, 再喝一杯 has not. One eyebrow, one wish.