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I've been using LangCorrect recently to get feedback on my writing. Recently, I wrote this:

我的话让老妈失望地叹了口气,说:“20年来,没有人相信我。你也不会呢?我不是在撒谎!我不是在骗你!”那时,老妈站了起来,开始收拾东西准备走。

I received three corrections, one marked the sentence as correct, and the two others corrected 你也不会呢? One just deleted this part, and the other changed it to 你也不相信我吗? I'm not clear on what the problem is here. One person commented I should use 吗 instead of 呢.

Question: What is wrong with how I wrote 你也不会呢?

I realize that as my writing has improved, corrections are less about correct vs. incorrect, and more about "this sounds more natural". But here, I'm not sure where the problem lies.

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  • Who says this: "“20年来,没有人相信我。你也不会呢?我不是在撒谎!我不是在骗你!”?
    – dan
    Jan 17, 2021 at 9:36
  • The mother in a story I’m writing (not a real person). She’s explaining to her son about his unusual birth, and how nobody believes her.
    – Becky 李蓓
    Jan 17, 2021 at 9:39
  • 1
    妳前面用“没有”,后面也要用“没有”,才会顺畅。较好的写法是:“20年来,没有人相信我,你也没有!”从前后文来看,这应该用肯定句,而非疑问句。
    – hinen
    Jan 17, 2021 at 10:56

2 Answers 2

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20年来,没有人相信我。你也不信吗?

Two changes:

  1. "会" - "信"
    "会" is normally used for something that happens later.
    Compare these two:
20年来,没有人相信我,你也不会!(No one believes, you won't either)  
20年来,没有人相信我,你也不信!(No one believes, you don't/didn't either) 

Second one is better, as the son said "这不可能" in the previous answer.
And keep the same verb for better coherency.

  1. "呢" - "吗"
    "呢" is normally used in a special interrogative sentence (特殊疑问句).
    "吗" is used in a closed-ended question (一般疑问句), or a rhetorical question (反问句).
    As mom is not waiting for the his response, I suggest having a rhetorical question here.

To check if a rhetorical question is correct, just remove the sentence-final particle (吗)
and replace the question mark with a exclamatory mark ("?" - "!").


Edited to add a "你也不会" example.

母:“20年来,没有人相信我,你也不会(相信)。”
子:“是什么,告诉我。”
母:“你没有老爸。”
子:“这不可能!”

When she hasn't told her son, it is ok to use "你也不会", but better to say "你也不会相信".

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Indeed, I personally don't understand "你也不会呢?" as a native Chinese speaker. I'm not quite sure what you want to express here. To me personally, it's not just a matter of it being natural or not since I didn't understand this sentence. Also disclaimer, as a Cantonese user, my opinion could probably deviate from Standard Chinese users.

What comes to my mind initially of what you might want to say is "Don't you also don't know how to do it?"/"Aren't you also oblivious to how to do it?" which I would use "你不是也不會嗎?"?

But after reading it several times, it seems your Mom wanted to use a rhetoric 1. "Don't you also not believe in me?" or 2. "Even you also don't believe in me now, is it?" which I would use 1. "你不是也不相信我嗎?" or 2. "現在連你也不相信我了,不是嗎?"


So analytically, 會 here should carry the meaning of "could", as in "could believe" (會相信), but the clause before did not have the phrase "會相信", so I'm guessing this might create a dissonance in understanding what was implied after 會.

Then I also failed to find a case where "呢" could be used in situations like these, but I believe you wanted to use it in a rhetorical case. However, "嗎" should have been used. Not sure why though. It just sounds weird to me. Might still think about it and come back. (But still, I believe "unnatural" sentences are actually violating some grammatical rules, since descriptive grammar describes the pattern of how people speak.)

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