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
who	谁
what	什么
where	哪里
when	什么时候
why	为什么
how	怎么

In English, question words have to be placed at the beginning of the sentence. This involves changing the word order to allow this re-arrangement. 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 re-arranged.

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:

• 这 是 什么？
• 这 是 书。

• 你 在 哪里？
• 你 在 北京。

• 你 什么时候 来了？
• 你 昨天 来了。

• 你 为什么 买 了 礼物？
• 你 为 我 买 了 礼物。

• 你 怎么 学习 中文？
• 你 用 课本 学习 中文。