I've learned two question ending: 吗 in 你好吗? and 呢 in 你呢?
But my question is When to use ’啦" and "嘛"？They seem to be question ending also, are they common in Chinese?
3 Answers
啦 is not truly a question ending. Actually 了 is.
E.g. 你刚才去哪了？ Where did you go just now?
However Chinese people do like to use 啦 instead of 了 to ask questions. Maybe it sounds cuter? So the example becomes
你刚才去哪啦？It's just a verbal use.
In question sentences, 嘛 can be used to substitute 什么 as a question ending. E.g. 你在干嘛？What are you doing now? instead of 你在干什么？I cannot think of any question else that ends with 嘛.
BTW these two characters are also widely used for acting cute...
E.g. 好了啦！ 干嘛啦！common in girlish talks.
啦 is similar to 了 嘛 can mean 什么('what') which is very common in Tianjin(天津) dialect, it is also a casual word that means nothing but make the request more gentle (or sweet, i can't find the proper word in english)
“啦”和“嘛”口头语很常见：
- “好嘛”是征求你同意
- “好啦”是我知道了
