I have a friend who is fond of including "eh?!" in his corresponding, including to native Chinese speakers. An example would be "That's quite a story, eh?!" So my question has several parts:
Is there a Chinese equivalent to "eh?!"
How do native speakers perceive that Chinese equivalent?
How do native speakers perceive the English "eh?!" ?
I am a native English speaker and "eh?!" rubs me the wrong way in English so I'm interested in how native Chinese speakers perceive it.
The role of 'eh?' at the end of a statement is similar to the rhetorical 'isn't it?' or the confirmatory 'right?'
In Cantonese, final particles '呵？'/ho2/ functions the same.
Example :
'呵？'/ho2/ Cantonese only
'he really is a good man.' -- '佢真係個好人.'
'he really is a good man, eh?' -- '佢真係個好人,呵？'(呵?= isn't he? / right?)
'嗯?'/ng2/ for Mandarin and Cantonese also functions the same.
Example :
'he really is a good man.' -- '他真的是個好人'
'he really is a good man, eh? '-- '他真的是個好人, 嗯?'(嗯?= isn't he? / right?)
How do native speakers perceive that Chinese equivalent?
eh? 嗯? and 呵？ are just part of a sentence, it is there for good reason.
How do native speakers perceive the English "eh?!" ?
We just interpret 'eh?' as 'isn't it?' or 'right?' which mean the speaker is seeking approval or confirmation about his statement from the listener. That would make the statement sound more asserted
The sound equivalent of eh in mandarin is 哎 or 欸, which usually appears at the start of a sentence, serving the purpose of calling for attention:
哎, 你钱包掉啦!
Hey, you dropped the wallet!
When it's put on the end of the sentence, it's usually meant to stress the point being made:
我的钱包丢了哎!
I lost my wallet!
Therefore, the sound equivalent of eh in mandarin serves totally different purposes.
The function equivalent phrase in mandarin can sometimes be 嗯?, though I'd like to argue that few mandarin speaker actually say something like 他真的是個好人, 嗯? -- They usually say something like 是吧/对不对 instead. Or, more eloquently:
That's quite a story, eh?
这故事不错吧?
he really is a good man, eh?
他这人真不赖吧?
Sounds perfectly fine to me. Though if my friend says things like this in every other sentence, I would get annoyed pretty quickly.
A typical Chinese ESL learner would presume that Chinese is the language in which it's normal to end a sentence with an interjection, while English isn't. So That's quite a story, eh?! would strike him as a bit odd and even Chinese-like. If he happens to have Singaporean friends instead of Canadian ones he might even consider it to be Singlish. But that's about all.
