I am learning Chinese, and when I talk to Chinese people I notice that they sometimes add 阿 at the end of sentences. What does this mean?

Adding this term to the end of sentence won't add anything to its semantic content or cognition significance. For the most part, it is used merely to indicate one's emotions of surprise, determination, etc.toward what is being said. For example, "The building is really tall 啊" is equivalent to "the building is really tall" in meaning. (By the way, it should be 啊, rather than 阿.)

Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 05/06/2012 11:23AM by Eqxt.

OK, 谢谢！

You are welcome. You have reached the stage of reading and writing Chinese characters. That is impressive. Congratulations. Good luck!

阿 sometime put before people's name. Like someone's name is 健，you can call him 阿健. Normally close friends will do that.