How to use 难道
难道 + Proposition + (吗)？
难道 marks a question that challenges a proposition the speaker finds difficult to accept. It often presents the alternative as surprising, implausible, or contrary to what should be known. The sentence may appear to request confirmation, but its main function is frequently to press a point or express disbelief. Context reveals the answer the speaker expects.
Place 难道 before the challenged clause or its predicate, and 吗 often closes the question. A negative proposition can imply that the speaker expects an affirmative reality, while a positive proposition may be challenged as unlikely. Do not assign the same expected answer to every 难道 question. The wording inside its scope determines what is being disputed.
Examples with pinyin and English
难道你真的相信他吗？
You don't actually believe him, do you?
难道你是我妈吗？
What are you, my mother or something?
今天是我的生日， 难道你不知道吗？
Today's my birthday; you're telling me you didn't know?
难道你今天没去上班吗？
Did you not go to work today?
What to remember
- 难道 signals a challenge or disbelief.
- 吗 commonly closes the rhetorical question.
- Infer the expected answer from the proposition.
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Source and editorial notes
Explanation rewritten for Laowai. Examples are adapted from the Laowai English grammar curriculum, with editorial corrections where needed. The original curriculum credits AllSet Learning’s Chinese Grammar Wiki as used with permission. Read the retained source credits.
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