Hey Nicole, I thought it might be helpful for me to chime in here. I think the best explanation of the particle 呀 is that it "softens" your tone. It makes what you say sound less stiff and stilted, and can often make you sound more friendly. The two best examples I can think of are: If 對 means yes, then 對呀 sounds more like "yeah" or "yup" or "mhmm" Similarly, 是 is a very formal "yes" or "that's correct", then 是呀 is "yeah" The unfortunate truth with other sentences is that you'll just have to "feel it out". Generally, it makes things softer as I said, and I've recorded some examples for you both with and without 呀 that hopefully help: 他呀，恐怕不行 趕快過來呀 想去就去呀 小心車呀 你快說呀 As I said, 呀 is often interchangeable with 啊. Recording: https://voca.ro/QyK24sGiwkQ