嘛 and 吗 are both pronounced "ma" and can come at the end of a statement, but give completely different meanings. Perfect your use of 嘛 and sound like a native Mandarin speaker!

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嘛 (ma or&nbsp;m&aacute;)&nbsp;is often used to indicate something obvious or self-evident, and there are several different ways of using&nbsp;嘛 in a sentence
Though the character 嘛 shares the same sound of 吗 (ma), they serve a different purpose. Now, let&rsquo;s discuss the use of 嘛.
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<h2>嘛 as a sentence particle</h2>
In many cases, 嘛 appears as a sentence particle, which means that it often comes at the end of the sentence, like 吧 and 吗.
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<h2>1. To say something is obvious</h2>
 In English, the phrase &ldquo;of course&rdquo; has a similar function as 嘛 when it is used to indicate something that is obvious or self-evident.
 嘛 is used when the speaker wants to emphasize that the statement is obviously the case, sometimes in response to what others have said. The following examples&nbsp;demonstrate how 嘛 is used in this case. You will see that the second speaker uses 嘛 in response to the first speaker:
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A. 
你怎么还没到啊？ Nǐ zěn me h&aacute;i m&eacute;i d&agrave;o ā ？ Why are you still not here?
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塞车嘛！ Sāi chē ma ！ Because there&rsquo;s a traffic jam!
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B. 
你怎么不喝可乐呢？ Nǐ zěn me b&ugrave; hē kě l&egrave; ne ？ Why don&rsquo;t you drink some Cola?
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对身体不好嘛！ Du&igrave; shēn tǐ b&ugrave; hǎo ma ！ It&rsquo;s not good for health!
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C.
他怎么这么顽皮呢？ Tā zěn me zh&egrave; me w&aacute;n p&iacute; ne ？ Why is he so naughty?
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还小嘛！ H&aacute;i xiǎo ma ！ He&rsquo;s still young!
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You can also use 嘛 in an independent statement to indicate that something is self-evident,for example:
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A.
你很聪明嘛。 Nǐ hěn cōng m&iacute;ng ma 。 You are so clever.
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B.
这天很热嘛。 Zh&egrave; tiān hěn r&egrave; ma 。 It&rsquo;s so hot.
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C.
考得还不错嘛。 Kǎo d&eacute; h&aacute;i b&uacute; cu&ograve; ma 。 You did well in the exam.
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We can see that it would be hard to find an equivalent of 嘛 in English. Usually, the tone of &ldquo;stating&nbsp;the obvious&rdquo; can have the same effect.
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<h2>2. To expect or request</h2>
 The word 嘛 can also be used to mark an expectation or request, and has a close relation to stating that something is obvious. 嘛 shows that the speaker considers something to be reasonable or totally expected. For example:
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A. 买个蛋糕给我嘛！ Mǎi g&egrave; d&agrave;n gāo gěi wǒ ma ！ Buy me a cake
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B. 别走嘛！ Bi&eacute; zǒu ma ！ Don&rsquo;t go!
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C. 笑一个嘛！ Xi&agrave;o yī g&egrave; ma ！ Smile!
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D. 别急嘛！ Bi&eacute; j&iacute; ma ！ No hurry!
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E. 亲亲我嘛！ Qīn qīn wǒ ma ！ Give me a kiss!
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<h2>3. 嘛 as a topic marker</h2>
 嘛 is also used as a topic marke. Mandarin is a topic-prominent language, which often puts the topic first in a sentence, before anything else; the topic of the sentence is first stated, and then come the comments. Now, when 嘛 appears in this case, you will know that the topic is right before it.
If you don&rsquo;t care to know about the topic or the comment of a sentence, don&rsquo;t bother; you don&rsquo;t need to know the terminology to speak a language well.
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嘛 could be simply treated as a way of pausing for the speaker to think about what to say next, like using &ldquo;well&rdquo; in the sentence: "Well, I mean..."
 The structure for this would simply be:
[topic] 嘛 [comment]
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Some example sentences might make this clearer:
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A. 他嘛，一直都是那样的。 Tā ma ，yī zh&iacute; dōu sh&igrave; n&agrave; y&agrave;ng de 。 Him, he&rsquo;s always like that.
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B. 干活嘛，哪有不累的。 G&agrave;n hu&oacute; ma ，nǎ yǒu b&uacute; l&egrave;i de 。 Working, is definitely tiring.
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C. 我说嘛， 怎么可能。 Wǒ shuō ma ， zěn me kě n&eacute;ng 。 I say, how is that possible.
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<h2>4. To mean &ldquo;what?&rdquo;</h2>
In certain cases, 嘛 can also be used to mean &ldquo;what?&rdquo;. Here, we are going to look at some of the most common uses.
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干嘛 (g&agrave;nm&aacute;)
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干嘛 is among the first phrases to learn when speaking Mandarin Chinese. It can mean, &ldquo;What are you doing?&rdquo; or could be used to question certain behaviors or actions. In either case, 干嘛 is rather casual and should not appear in formal situations.
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First, let&rsquo;s look at some examples of when 干嘛&nbsp;simply asks&nbsp;&ldquo;doing what?&rdquo; &nbsp;The speaker is asking a question to get information:
A. 你等会打算干嘛？ Nǐ děng hu&igrave; dǎ su&agrave;n g&agrave;n ma ？ What do you plan to do later?
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B. 他来广东干嘛？ Tā l&aacute;i guǎng dōng g&agrave;n ma ？ Why did he come to Guangdong province?
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C. 这玩意干嘛用的？ Zh&egrave; w&aacute;n y&igrave; g&agrave;n ma y&ograve;ng de ？ What is this used for?
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In the sentences above, 干嘛 is meant purely as a question rather than making any comment on a behavior or action. However, the following examples might indicate that the speaker finds the action or behavior to be annoying, incorrect or undesirable and wants to express this by using 干嘛:
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D. 你干嘛老迟到啊？ Nǐ g&agrave;n ma lǎo ch&iacute; d&agrave;o ā ？ How can you always be late?
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E. 担心这些干嘛？ Dān xīn zh&egrave; xiē g&agrave;n ma ？ Why are you worrying about this?
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F. 没事老提这个干嘛？ M&eacute;i sh&igrave; lǎo t&iacute; zh&egrave; g&egrave; g&agrave;n ma ？ What&rsquo;s the point of mentioning it all the time?
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You can easily tell the negative feeling indicated by these sentences. 干嘛 in these sentences implies an additional meaning of &ldquo;Why?&rdquo; or &ldquo;What&rsquo;s the point&rdquo;. 干嘛 can also be used on its own to indicate that the speaker thinks something is not right or is questionable:
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干嘛？ G&agrave;nm&aacute;?
You&nbsp;what?
What (on earth) are you doing?&nbsp;
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