Placement of question words

Question words are one way to form questions in Chinese. In English, question words are also known as wh-words, as the majority of them begin with wh:

Question words

English	Chinese	Pinyin
who	谁	shéi
what	什么	shénme
where	哪里	nǎli
when	什么时候	shénme shíhou
why	为什么	wèishénme
how	怎么	zěnme

In English, question words have to be placed at the beginning of the sentence. This involves changing the word order to allow this rearrangement. In Chinese, using question words is a lot simpler. You simply place a question word in the place of the thing you want to ask about. Nothing needs to be rearranged.

So if the statement is

• 你 是 小李。

the question form - "who are you?" - has the same word order:

• 你 是 谁？

This works for whatever it is you want to ask about. The question form has the same word order as the statement form.

An example for asking and telling what:

• 这 是 什么？
• 这 是 书。

An example for asking and telling where:

• 你 在 哪里？
• 你 在 北京。

An example for asking and telling when:

• 你 什么时候 来了？
• 你 昨天 来了。

An example for asking and telling why:

• 你 为什么 学 中文？
• 你 为了 工作 学 中文。

An example for asking and telling how:

• 你 怎么 学习 中文？
• 你 用 课本 学习 中文。

See also

• Word order
• Positive negative questions
• Yes - no questions with ma

Sources and further reading

Books

• Basic Patterns of Chinese Grammar (pp. 23) →buy