Placement of question words

Revision as of 02:47, 14 May 2012 by ViktorMugli (talk | contribs)

Structure

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

Sources and further reading

Books

Retrieved from "https://resources.allsetlearning.com/gramwiki/?title=Placement_of_question_words&oldid=6185"