Placement of question words

Revision as of 07:34, 19 March 2013 by Guomubai (talk | contribs)

A primer on using question words.

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 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

  • 我 是 小李。I am Xiao Li.

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

  • 你 是 谁?Who are you? (you are who?)

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

Examples

An example for asking and telling what:

  • 这 是 什么What is this?
  • 这 是 This is a book。

An example for asking and telling where:

  • 你 在 哪儿Where are you?
  • 我 在 北京I'm in Beijing.

An example for asking and telling when:

  • 什么时候 来的?When are you coming?
  • 昨天 来的。I'm coming tomorrow.

An example for asking and telling why:

  • 为什么 学 中文?Why do you study Chinese?
  • 因为 我 在 中国。 Because I'm in China.

An example for asking and telling how:

  • 怎么 学习 中文?How do you study Chinese?
  • 我 有 中文 老师I have a Chinese teacher.

See also

Sources and further reading

Books