In "qing3gei3wo3ka1fei1haoma? what is the pinyin for haoma and how does it equal may i ask?
For the sentence qing3 gei3 wo3 ka1fei1 haoma? what is the pinyin for haoma and its literal meaning. I understand, from my book that ma signifies the statement is a question but the character for hao looks like the character hao3 in ni3hao3 which until now I only know as meaning good.
In the sentence asking for coffee, my book translates it as "Please give me a coffee, may I ask?" and says that the addition of haoma makes the question more polite. Does haoma mean in fact "may I ask" or does it literally mean something else referring to good that in English would be translated as "may I ask".
There are no tone marks in my book so I don't know if haoma is hao3ma with hao being third tone and ma being fifth tone or not.
: ((

Question

In  "qing3gei3wo3ka1fei1haoma? what is the pinyin  for haoma and how does it equal may i ask?
For the sentence qing3 gei3 wo3 ka1fei1 haoma? what is the pinyin for haoma and its literal meaning. I understand, from my book that ma signifies the statement is a question but the character for hao looks like the character hao3 in ni3hao3 which until now I only know as meaning good.
In the sentence asking for coffee, my book translates it as "Please give me a coffee, may I ask?" and says that the addition of haoma makes the question more polite. Does haoma mean in fact "may I ask" or does it literally mean something else referring to good that in English would be translated as "may I ask".
There are no tone marks in my book so I don't know if haoma is hao3ma with hao being third tone and ma being fifth tone or not. 
: ((

Answer

chinese speaks as polite as they can be.

好吗？(hao3 ma?) in your sentence could mean "is it okay?".  

'please give me coffee, is it okay (or : could you?)?' as translated literally.

since the statement "please give me coffee" sounds quite impolite and demanding, "hao ma" supports the statement to show politeness.

:)

Answer

hi meir, 
1. “hao” is the third tone and “ma” is the first tone here. 
2." haoma?" is a interrogative and here it can be considered as " may i " in English. but it doesn't make sense that your book says it equals "may i ask". 
3. you can say the sentence like this: please give me a coffee ( 请给我一杯咖啡）or May I have a coffee please?( 请给我一杯咖啡,好吗？） 
hope it helps you

Answer

hao3 ma (untoned)

May I ask? that's too formal to me..

I prefer "Okay?" to translate " hao ma?"

Answer

Hello Meir,

First I suggest you look for another dictionary to use ;)

As for "hao ma" in this sentence :
- Hao3 好 means good .
- ma 吗 is a question tag ( added to questions where the answers would be Yes or No )
" hao ma ? " means literally " good"? "is it good so?" but the sense in English would be equivalent to " may I ask? ".

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