Kilo Lingo

(shéi) - who, whom in Mandarin

shéi

Traditional: 誰

Also read shuí formal or literary Mandarin

Line drawing of 谁
Coloured illustration of 谁
[ʂei˧˥] HSK 1
#67 of 2,700Core 1000

Translation

who, whom

Test yourself on 谁

Three quick questions. No account needed.

Know this word? Create a free account to track it.

Word origin

谁 (shéi), also read shuí, is a phono-semantic compound of 讠, the speech radical, and 隹 (zhuī), a short-tailed bird, as the phonetic. It is the interrogative pronoun 'who' or 'whom'.

Origin
phono-semantic compound
Root
讠(speech radical) + 隹 (zhuī, phonetic)

Stroke order

Stroke order for 谁

谁

Examples

？

Do you know who wrote this?

，。

There is someone at the door; I do not know who it is.

？？

Who are you waiting for? Has he not arrived yet?

？

Who is knocking at the door?

？

Who is willing to help me?

Where this fits

The 1,000 most common Mandarin words

Where this word sits in the core vocabulary, and what to learn around it.

Mandarin vocabulary by HSK level

How many words each level actually needs, with real counts.

Mandarin learning guides

Podcasts, pronunciation traps and the things a word list cannot teach.

Used in

Stories

(19)

Add to review queue

Track this word in your spaced-repetition queue and be tested on it at the right interval.

Chapters 1 and 2 free

Meet this word in a story

Every course has graded stories written only with words you have been taught, plus grammar drills, a games arcade and printable worksheets. Chapters 1 and 2 are free.

Chapters 1 and 2 free, forever. Plus: 7 days free, then $5 a month for all eleven languages.

Start learning free

Mandarin · Free printables

谁: worksheet, infographic and listicle

Free printable study downloads for the Mandarin word "谁" (who, whom): a worksheet with the answer key built in, an infographic, and a sentence listicle. Open any one to view, print or save.

This word is taught in chapter 2, lesson 8: 谁, 个, 看 and 7 more words.