嗎 and 吗? Well, both of them mean ma neutral tone,which is used as questioning particle. About half of all Chinese radicals have two forms of writing for the same character traditional and simplified. 嗎 is the traditional way and 吗 is the simplified version. For now, I think it would be wise to just concentrate on the spoken language instead of the written Chinese language which is arduous to say the least. But if you can do both at the same time, I have a lot of respect for you.