How Common is 啊

Question

I have a tendency to stick in 啊 whenever I want the sentence to sound strong (in any emotion whether it be happiness, annoyance, etc) which I'm aware is it's purpose.

But exactly how common is it? I've seen Chinese shows and I don't see the actors using 啊 THAT MUCH (pretty substantial but not to the extent I was expecting)

I've also seen them use 啊 in a perfectly chill environment. Like they'll be having a normal, steady conversation and one them will just throw in an 啊. So is it thrown around for the sake of sounding natural as well?

BOTTOM LINE: How common is 啊 in daily speech? A general outline for it's use would be nice too.

Answer 1

Actually, 啊 is a versatile modal particle that can express many kinds of emotion.

From Classical Chinese to modern Chinese, many frequent words change, but still mean the same thing:

之＞的

夫＞吧

也＞啦、呀

亦＞也

欲＞要

无、未＞没、吗

是、斯、此＞这

若＞那

乎、兮、矣＞啊

etc.

So you can see many words turn into 啊, so 啊 can imply many emotions.

e.g.

温故而知新，可以为师矣。

温习旧知识而（能够）学到新知识，（就）可以凭借（此）做老师了啊。 （施诲）

葛之覃兮，施于中谷。

葛藤蔓生得多么旺盛啊，绵延在山谷之中。（喜悦）

贤人乎，贤人乎！非质有其内，恶能用之哉？

真是贤人啊，真是贤人啊！（如果）不是有内在的（美好）品质，怎么能重用他呢？（赞叹）

Answer 2

Judging from the number of times ordinary people in the street, whose dialect I can barely comprehend, when they are explaining something to this 老外 ask, "啊懂啊？" I'd say it's very common!

Just watching the news. 习近平刚刚到澳门说：我很高兴啊！