Somebody showed me a group picture that included their face, and asked me “你可以找到我嘛”. After replying I asked why 嘛 is used instead of 吗 for this question. My Chinese is not great and my Chinese friend isn't great at explaining Chinese grammar to me in English, but they did say 语气词. Which, as I understand it, names this grammar construct.
What is 语气词? Why is it used here? How do I use it?
Clarification; this was a text message conversation
Check out ABC's definition of 嘛:
1 (used to persuade sb. to do sth.)
来嘛, 不要太任性。
Lái ma, bụ̀yào tài rènxìng.
Come on, don't be so stubborn.2 (used to emphasize the obvious)
是星期日嘛。办公室当然关了。
Shì Xīngqīrì ma. Bàngōngshì dāngrán guān le.
It's Sunday. Of course offices are closed.
So here 嘛, despite it's similar pronunciation, has very different usage to 吗. It is mostly used in persuasion or to emphasize something that is obvious.
Taking your sentence if it had been 吗 instead we would have something like:
but your sentence: 你可以找到我嘛 works out to something more like:
hmm as well as hmmm
Commented
Jun 14, 2019 at 14:39
Pinyin is a normal computer input method used very commonly in China. But it doesn’t contain any tone marks. So if you type “Ma” in this input method, these two words “嘛” and “吗” appear just at the same time. Sometimes, an interrogative sentence ended up by “嘛“ (instead of “吗”) is just a typo.
You should use “吗” on formal occassion.
(Native speaker.)
嘛has meaning of a little spoiled.
